


Under the Shattered Moon

by Toskie



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series, RWBY
Genre: After the Fall of Beacon, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:09:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 61,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23783665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toskie/pseuds/Toskie
Summary: Minato Arisato wakes up somewhere in Remnant with a clear objective in mind.Alone but armed, he journeys to meet that objective and a lot more.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 63





	1. Waking Up

The first thing Minato saw was light.

He blinked a few times as he shielded his eyes from the glare. The last thing he remembered before waking up was meeting Elizabeth and talking to her in the vast darkness. He recalled her saying she would hold the fort for him as he was being removed from the door he had been chained to. However, he didn’t hear of the alternative she had picked. It made him worry, the thought of her taking his place did cross his mind. He didn’t dismiss the idea, but as it always had been, he trusted her, for he considered her more than just his attendant.

He felt the back of his head against something solid and it was beginning to feel uncomfortable. He pushed his right hand against the ground and mustered energy to sit up. With his current position he was able to look around, making sense of his whereabouts.

Soil completely absent of vegetation surrounded with trees as far as the eyes could see. His immediate surroundings left a telltale mark of a campsite. Four logs arranged around an extinguished campfire, including one his head rested against. There were also boulders right behind one of the logs.

He lifted his rear to be able to sit on the log and exhaled a deep breath. It allowed him to take a look at himself. Dress shirt accented with a loose black ribbon tie with an unzipped black jacket on the outside, complimented with a strapped music player and clip-on silver earphones hanging around his neck. The dress shirt was tucked inside a pair of dress trousers covered his lower limbs secured by a belt with a silver buckle around his waist, complete with a pair of dark blue engineer boots covering his feet.

He looked to his right and found some items.

Firstly, a sword. Its steel blade, straight and double-edged maintaining the same width until it had to be given a pointed tip. It had a crossguard bending slightly upwards and covered in a hue of gold, milled to form a pattern. The wooden handle had been shaped to primarily accommodate the use of one hand, although it had enough room for him to squeeze the other hand in and apply more powerful blows. The pommel was coated and milled in the same way the crossguard did and allowed him to wield it securely. It was the same sword he had gotten used to. He took it by its handle with his right hand and took a good look at it. The blade didn’t come in the most polished, most shiny finish but the edges reflected the sunlight. More importanly, he spotted no damage to the blade. The other parts of the sword didn’t feel loose after he jiggled it. He planted the sword upright to the ground to his left with little to no force as he was done examining it.

There was another item to his right which he didn’t notice when he picked up the sword. A white belt, holster attached to it. In the holster was a gun finished in the same dullish silver of the sword. He had to stretch out his hand to grab it and took it onto his lap. The belt was made of synthetic material, and had a metal buckle. He unhooked the clip which secured the gun in place and took it out. He recalled it mentioned to have been made out of refurbished shell of real, working guns fitted with the mechanism and a special material inside that allowed him, and others, to activate an ability. The special material itself had a light bluish hue and could be seen on the gun’s handle. One side of the barrel housing had “Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad” and its abbreviation, “S.E.E.S.” engraved into it.

Speaking of his black jacket, it had two zipped pockets at the front and two more inside. The two inner pockets were empty, but the two front pockets had contents in them. The right one contained none other than the SEES armband. The left one was his wallet. The armband went back to the place it was found as he chose to not wear it for the time being.

The wallet, on the other hand, was interesting. Of all the things carried over, he didn’t expect it to come with him. Then it hit him he should’ve been more concerned with how the sword and the Evoker came with him instead of wondering about the wallet. He suspected it was Elizabeth’s doing.

In any case, he examined his wallet. It looked mundane. Black, made of cheap leather, with no buttons to secure it as it closed. He took out the contents.

First, the things he expected to be in the wallet. His Gekkoukan High student ID. Then, the train pass as he had to take it to go places back in Port Island. Lastly, an ATM card.

Then onto the things he knew yet not necessarily expected to be in the wallet, but a welcome surprise nevertheless. Two photographs. One of SEES, taken in the dorm courtesy of Junpei as he insisted to take a “team photo” when everyone was hanging around the dorm’s lobby as they got ready for an outing in the upcoming Dark Hour. Perhaps Junpei wasn’t satisfied with the photo taken during summer festival at a nearby shrine, with the girls wearing kimono and all. The other photo, smaller in size than the first one, was of him and Elizabeth inside a photo booth. He recalled her trying all sorts of poses but in the photo he was holding, she managed to maintain a normal enough pose, one hand holding a tome.

With those out of the way, he moved onto the unfamiliar things in question, a couple of plastic cards. He deduced they were a form of currency, the cards were printed with the same motives paper bills would. The symbol was unknown to him, however. It looked like a combination of two currencies he knew existed but otherwise foreign in country of origin.

Finishing his inspection, he put the contents of the wallet back in, and shoved it into the back pocket.

He was content to stay in the abandoned campsite for a while, seeing there was no immediate threats. The music player worked, and he put his earphones on, listening to the first song selected by the little cylindrical thing at random while basking in the sunlight.

The warmth of sunlight, and the breeze of Spring, was the last thing he remembered before he had to fulfill his duty. The wait was a long one. He had known full well of the price he had to pay, and yet out of sheer willpower, he managed to get by. Everyone in SEES had all the stories held from their own records until then, reduced back to mere school and dorm mates. And yet, when the promised day came, the memories raced in just like they did up the stairs and into the rooftops to meet him, not caring about the happenstances elsewhere.

He looked at them, his vision turning into a blur and all, and managed to muster an earnest smile before his eyes closed. He was filled with joy.

As he laid his eyes to the skies above, he prayed they were all doing fine. It would be a lie to say he didn’t miss them.

He had spent enough time reminiscing. As the sun was getting high in the sky, he decided he needed to start walking. Elizabeth gave him a clear objective: find Ruby Rose.

The tales of four girls as old as he did, attending institutes akin to normal high schools to become warriors wielding weapons which sounded so advanced it couldn’t be true, caught his interest. Much more so after she told him of the recent events which had deeply affected Ruby Rose and her companions. He recalled vividly the point Elizabeth brought up in which Ruby Rose witnessed someone she considered a friend met her demise. It moved him. Deciding whether to take or not to take the option of being transported into the world he was in, named Remnant, became a non-issue.

He lifted the bottom of his jacket to put on the white belt. He fastened it, but not as tight the other belt, letting the holster slide down a bit but secured otherwise. He took off his earphones from his ears and picked up the sword by its hilt as he stood up. The sword never had a sheath, so he had to carry it around as he walked.

To know his bearings, or at least the overall landscape, he required a higher point of view. Therefore, he decided to climb the tree nearby. He was never challenged with having to climb up stuff and over obstacles back then. It wouldn’t stop him nevertheless. He had athleticism so might as well start using it.

He should strongly consider finding a sheath, or materials needed to craft it should it came to be, as he had to use both hands to get ahold of the tree. Having one hand holding something posed a problem. Still, he was adamant about climbing. Therefore, he carefully slipped the sword behind the white belt to avoid cutting it.

Once it felt secure enough as the crossguard managed to stick onto the white belt, he took steps back from the tree until he felt he was far enough. Pushing his right foot against the ground, he ran towards the tree, then planted his left foot onto the ground, pushed upwards with the same foot, and got up a lot higher than he expected. Nevertheless, he managed to find footing on the tree and his right foot quickly pushed up, giving him more elevation. With one leap off his left foot, he managed to reach the branch above the one he intended to. He pulled his whole upper body up, then sat on it, hoping it wouldn’t break.

When he felt he could balance himself on top of the branch, he gripped the tree and lifted his left leg. Then his right, slightly struggling with his footing as his right hand provided a bit more leverage. Slowly, yet carefully, he stood upright on the branch with his left hand holding onto the tree.

All he could see in the vast wilderness, was more tree. No bodies of water caught his eye. There were no noticable landmarks along the way. Though in the distance, he spotted what looked like a walkable path quite a distance away.

The decision he took was to get to that path instead of walking in the wilderness. As he was ready to hang on the branch and drop back down, he sensed something. He couldn’t find any other words to describe it but foul, in every sense. He looked around, then down, to find the source of foulness.

A quadrupedal creature, primarily black in colour, with white spikes protruding out of its limbs and bodies. Half of its face were white, with subtle red markings. It’s as if the skull of the creature was meant to be armor. The eyes, red, leaving trails as it walked. Its grunt wasn’t unlike the beast-like Shadows he encountered back then.

The beast walked past the tree he was standing on as he looked around some more. He found two more, idling and just walking in circles quite a ways behind this one. He assumed they possess the same behaviour as similar animals he knew, in the sense that they could be a pack, or part of one.

He didn’t have time for further judgment, he had to decide what to do in the immediate moment. He didn’t want to humor the beasts to find out whether or not they prey on humans. Although, judging by the size, he at least knew a human would struggle if pitted against one. He looked at the beast who had come to an idle state below the tree and looked at it.

The thorns, even though they weren’t scattered all over the beast, meant he couldn’t simply drop on it as it would leave him exposed to getting impaled, which wouldn’t be funny. Still, a surprise attack was in the cards. He would have to end it as quickly as possible. Problem was he had to do it without attracting the other two.

The other option was to simply run. The trees aren’t far from each other. Should he wanted to he could simply traverse from one tree to the other. The question was whether or not he had the tenacity to do it.

He might choose to try jumping trees, had he not notice the two beasts in the distance turning around while the one under him had laid down on its belly. It was the perfect opportunity.

He quickly but carefully pulled the sword he had slipped onto the white belt and tried to get a feel for his Personas at the same time. They answered his call, though he had to wait for them to collect their senses as if they too had just awoken from their own slumber. All of them seemed to be present, which was a good thing.

The opportunity could slip away at any moment, so anybody would have to do. And one Persona he was associated with, and one that shared a resemblance to him, Orpheus, was on the ready. He breathed a sigh of relief at that. Stealth was still pretty much the main option, but should the two beasts in the distance approach him, Orpheus would be summoned to help fend them off.

He changed the grip of his sword, allowing the blade to point down to the ground and took one last look at the beast, aiming at the side of its neck where the thorns were absent. He steadied his breath and closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes, focusing on the target, grasped the sword with both hands, lifted it until the handle was level to his face, and jumped down without making as much as a hiss. Gravity helped multiplying the force as he planted the sword as deep as he could to the neck of the beast while he managed to land on the side. The beast roared as he quickly reacted by pulling out the sword with both hands, dragging the hilt back to around chest-level before delivering a powerful upward slash to the same part of the neck he had impaled. The slash exposed its flesh, bright red in colour, as if it was a heat source. The beast, meanwhile, let out another roar but was rendered unable to move as it lied on its back after the resulting slash. It prompted him to quickly get away as it might have attracted the other two beasts. Fortunately, there was a bush large enough to fit a man nearby and he quickly jumped in to hide.

As he peeked from inside the bush, he steadied his breath again. He observed the beast laying there incapacitated, emitting black smoke before completely dissolving into nothingness. The two beasts he spotted in the distance had come close to the position of the deceased kind. They didn’t stick around for long and scattered to two different directions. He remained undetected, a huge relief.

While still hiding in the bush, he processed what just happened to the beast he had killed. Its exterior characteristics were unique, unlike any Shadows he had faced before. They did share a common theme, however, that they disintegrated into nothing upon death. It made him wary. It could be a brand new type of Shadow and that Remnant might be in danger. Then again, he supposed the four girls Elizabeth had told him received training for something like this.

He could no longer sense danger as he finally came out of the bush. He brushed the leaves off and breathed a sigh of relief before beginning to walk towards the direction where the path was located relative to his position.

The increasingly taller grass did impede his progress a bit but after some time he was out of the dense vegetation. He had to quickly decide which way to go. Dwelling in the opening might lead to getting ambushed by those beasts. There was also no trail to follow which made it difficult. He recalled the beasts coming from the one way, so normally, he decided to go the other way. Truthfully, he knew it wasn’t that simple. As he sensed more Personas on the ready in his mind, his options grew, so was his confidence.

Whatever this world throw at him, he would be ready. He began walking in the direction of choosing as he repeatedly muttered Ruby’s full name and recalled the description of her Elizabeth had given.


	2. Confrontation with the Beasts

If it wasn’t for the encounter with the beasts, Minato’s walk would be so uneventful he might sleepwalk his way to wherever his legs would take him. Then again, they left him wondering whether he woke up in an area where the presence of the beasts were quite prevalent or it’s just how it was in Remnant.

Not too long into his walk on the dirt road, he was intercepted by the same type of beast he had killed near the abandoned campsite. It just lunged at him, trying to pin down his whole person. He was able to shift out of the way while putting his sword up, letting it slash into the beast’s side which had no protection whatsoever. It proved to be a devastating blow but he didn’t want to take any chances so he quickly pinned it, one foot stomping onto the beast and stuck the blade between the thorns on the back of the neck, planting it as deep as possible. The beast let out a weak growl before completely passing out, again emitting smoke before completely disappearing into thin air.

Another one tried to get a jump on him as he heard the rustling noise, taking advantage of the tall grass on the side of the road to do a sneak attack. It leapt high in the air with its belly exposed. Again, he used its momentum to his advantage. He stepped forward, as if trying to get himself squashed on purpose, then lifted his sword with both hands, impaling its underside and quickly ran the blade all the way to its tail. The blow was severe enough he didn’t need a knockout blow to finish it off just like the other one he just killed.

The sky was in the middle of getting covered in dark clouds when he fought off a group of four beasts. It was also the first time he summoned a Persona since waking up. Slipping by two of them, he quickly pulled out the Evoker and placed it against his head. Orpheus quickly appeared with the pull of the trigger. It used its lyre to crush one of the beasts’ skull with one swing, and then grabbed another one by the mouth before consuming it with fire as the master of strings’ red eyes lit up.

While Orpheus was busy with two of them, he had just finished off one, ducking under the swing of its claw before slashing its abdomen open and stabbed its neck. He defeated the last one by letting it crash into a tree before he cleaved it on the side of its neck not dissimilar with the killing blow he gave to the first of the beast he managed to kill.

He didn’t waste time to keep walking at an increased pace with Orpheus disappearing into his mind, knowing the battle was over.

He made himself clear that if rain actually occurred, he was to stop and quickly take shelter. He once braved himself through a torrential rain and it resulted in him getting bedridden during the time it turned into a series of typhoon which lasted three days. At the moment, he simply couldn’t afford taking any risks.

He saw a small path amongst the tall grass and quickly walked into it. It lead to a clearing, which was used as a campsite, given the sight of the extinguished campfire and a tent. However, there were no signs of life in and around the place.

“Hello?” He called, then waited while looking around to make sure this wasn’t a trap set by someone, or even those beasts.

To his relief, nothing threatening came into his senses. He called again as he walked around the tent. Again, there was nothing. The tent had a cutout which had clear plastic installed instead of tarp.

It turned out to be the tent’s window. He looked through it, trying to discern what was in the tent. Some might call it rude but he did try to call with the assumption that its owner was inside.

There was nobody in the tent, only things. He quickly grew suspicious. Perhaps it really could be a trap.

He searched the campsite for telltale signs. First thing he found on the ground was a form of device about the size of an ice cream stick. It was ornamented, although only simply as it didn’t seem to be important of note. He traced his finger on it when suddenly it divided itself into two, presenting a holographic screen. The screen displayed the photograph of a man who looked to be a few years older than him at the very least and information that otherwise noted would serve as identification. On top of the screen, written in all capitals, were “Huntsman License” and “Haven”, the former written in much larger size than the latter.

Elizabeth didn’t drop too many terms and names when she told him a little bit about Remnant, but she did mention that Ruby Rose and her friends were undergoing formal education to become warriors dubbed as Huntsmen. Hence he figured whoever possessed the piece of identification he was holding had gone through the same process. It didn’t even take a second to figure out the risks which followed the particular line of work, for he also dedicated time to an activity which posed similar predicaments, even though he only had been doing so for a year, much shorter than even Ruby and her friends, much less the owner of the license.

The Huntsman License displayed the name of the man in the photograph in a manner not too unlike how he would identify himself in native Japan. As the name sounded foreign, however, he knew to do it the other way. The license was issued an had been authorized from what he assumed to be an instution like the one Ruby and her friends had attended, in this case Haven Academy. A 15-digit number was written below the man’s name, Zach Hyacinth.

As he finished reading the identification, he saw something through the holographic screen. A drop on the ground, and a trail leading away from the site. He followed it to about quite a distance away from the campsite where the trail came to a stop at a very sizable spot on the ground. He kneeled and touched it, then rubbed his fingers as the metallic smell invaded his nose. It was enough to confirm his suspicion when he decided to follow the trail. He momentarily dropped his head, seemingly disappointed while reminding himself that this was in no way his fault. It was tough to accept but dwelling on it wouldn’t change anything.

He stood up and walked back to the campsite, took a piece of stone used to build the campfire and returned to that spot, bringing Zach Hyacinth’s license along. Sticking both items together, he planted them into the ground deep enough so they stayed in place without completely burying the piece of identification.

He brought both hands together, placing it in front of his chest as a gesture to the owner of the license. May those affected were given strength to move forward and live on, he said in his heart. It was indeed unfortunate and it served as a further reminder of how seemingly cutthroat this world was, as if he hadn’t been warned enough.

After spending a moment in that position, he returned to the camp site and muttered an apology before entering the tent. He got a clearer look of the things he had previously seen from the outside as soon as he crawled inside.

The first item of note was a backpack which he knew would be useful for hiking trips. The bag felt quite heavy when he grabbed it, making it more evident that the owner was most likely on a mission which would take days to complete. There was also a sleeping mat and a sheet which had been neatly folded next to the window.

A couple of books were laid beside the bag which he obviously never heard of but got him curious nevertheless. “The Man with Two Souls” and “Ninjas of Love” were the names of both books respectively. The cover of the former indicated that it was a fairly recent copy of a book which had enjoyed a prolonged shelf life and that it had been awarded as a best seller. All he could tell about the latter was that it was probably a romance work, which he had never read much.

He crawled back outside with the backpack and took a brief look at it before opening it to check what’s inside. As expected, there were supplies, first aid kit, spare clothing, and personal belongings. He knew that ethically taking items falling in the first two category was fair game. The spare clothing was a gray area while the personal belongings was a big no-no. He separated them before putting the supplies and first aid kit back in the backpack. The spare clothing and personal belongings would be left in the tent when it was time to get back walking.

Speaking of the surroundings, it was starting to rain and starting to get dark. He looked at the watch he woke up with and found the time to be correct relative to how he was used to. Drizzles began falling and he quickly crawled inside the tent with all the stuff.

During the rain, he took some time to skim through both novels. “The Man with Two Souls” was quite interesting. It reminded him of the time he had a kid occassionally showing up out of nowhere and talking to him during the Dark Hour, even though it wasn’t entirely accurate to the book. That kid grew a corporal form functional outside the Dark Hour and became Ryoji about two seasons later, and then revealed itself as Death as Winter came. The most brief summary about “Ninjas of Love” that he could think of was that Junpei would like it with the surprising amount of adult content in it.

Halfway through trying to bear with himself while reading “Ninjas of Love”, the rain had completely stopped. According to his watch, it hadn’t been that long, a couple of hours at maximum. He put down the book, much to his relief, and crawled outside. The surroundings had become completely dark. He knew instantly that it was time to make a campfire.

He got rid of the ashes, gathered sufficient amount of dry enough wood from the surrounding trees and began arranging them on the fireplace as best he could, not being a survival expert and all. He sprinkled some liquor which he had found in a small flask inside the backpack when he was searching, figuring it could be useful to light the fire.

After that it was a matter of lighting up the pile of wood. The problem was, he didn’t found a lighter anywhere. He needed to get the fire started, not just to keep himself warm but to drive off those beasts from the site in case they were in close proximity.

His right hand suddenly felt hot. It felt like it was burning on the inside as he looked at it yet it didn’t seem to inflict damage otherwise the sleeve of his shirt would already catch fire. A voice inside him spoke, instructing him to try “lighting it up”, so he did, the same way he was instructed to point the silver gun at his head.

A spark was formed in his palm, then it became a tiny flame. His eyes slightly widened in surprise, his eyebrows also raised in the same manner. It was a welcoming sight, yet at the same time wasn’t completely unheard of, coming from someone who was on the opposite end of Mitsuru’s wrath outside the Dark Hour which ended up trapping him and three other guys inside a giant block of ice.

With the fire steadily burning in his hand, he pulled his sleeve up and directed his palm towards the pile of wood. There was a scare that he might spontaneously combust in the process, but he remained calm and controlled, and successfully lit the campfire. He pulled his hand away in satisfaction, relief evident as he let out a sigh. The fire in his hand also went out along with it.

He recalled an interesting point in the conversation with Elizabeth as he put some more wood to keep the fire burning. It specifically talked about the Universe Arcana he had obtained. She mentioned it might evolve into something more than just allowing him to wield multiple Personas and materialise the giant golden door in the edge of the collective unconsciousness. With the evolution laid in front of him, he figured she really had a point. Still, it was a surprise that he could simply manifest fire just like that. The Universe Arcana might have reshaped his ability in this new world where things didn’t necessarily follow the same laws.

After having dinner, he intended to test out what else the Universe Arcana had in store.

He held out his palm again. He muttered a spell, and a tiny flame began dancing in his palm. It seemed steady enough despite its size that blowing it couldn’t snuff it out. He clasped his hand shut and muttered another spell, this time spawning a floating shard of ice. He repeated the process again, producing different results with each different spells he muttered. A gust of wind, a spark of electricity, and a small ball of light and darkness, to name a few.

He wanted to do more testing but considering the surroundings, he decided not to. For one he might set fire to the forest by accident. Nevertheless, he welcomed this newfound ability.

When Elizabeth told him that he would be awakened in a different world he had some reservations. One, time had passed way longer than he thought, despite her tale of “crossing fates” with Ruby Rose and her friends happening only a few years after the events which led him to his current position, if the age of Akihiko and Mitsuru was to go by. Two, when she said different, she meant different as in nothing he knew existed save for things which might have been formed from the same roots. And lastly, he would rather be passed on than be revived for the sake of it.

In the end, he set the doubts aside. The death of Ruby Rose’s friend marked a devastating defeat following a surprise attack which in truth was an uphill battle to overcome in the beginning. Not only lives were lost, but a whole city became uninhabitable and had to be closed off. The population had to be evacuated, which included her and her peers.

What made him agreeing to it in a flash, was the fact that it wasn’t the end. Elizabeth told her that similar attacks were to happen in other locations scattered across Remnant, and that Ruby and her friends had embarked on a journey to stop the next attack and more.

It’s said that Ruby possessed a power unlike any other that even herself hadn’t figured out how to wield consciously. That, and her name was pretty easy to remember for Elizabeth who often fumbled with names every now and then. Maybe she had gotten rid of that habit over time.

Those were the major talking points which led him to where he currently was, sitting in front of a campfire, staring at the shattered moon in the sky. It was an amazing and harrowing sight at the same time. For the shards managed to keep themselves close to the main piece and for the fact that something powerful enough made it happen.

He looked at the two photographs he had in his wallet. He hoped Elizabeth was doing fine guarding the Great Seal on her own whilst secretly wishing there was a way to check on her. Maybe there would be, if fate allowed it. All he could hold onto was her words, and tightly he held them. As for SEES -- Yukari, Junpei, Fuuka, Aigis, Mitsuru, Akihiko, Shinjiro, Ken, and Koromaru – he knew they would love to come along. After all, they all had bonded to become the equivalent of a family despite the rough beginnings.

That bond which would never be broken, the memories, and his heart, should guide him through this new journey of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Toskie here. It's good to be back.
> 
> The idea for this had been in my head for quite some time after I finished watching volume 5 of RWBY. I did a lot of research, read a bunch of other works before coming to a decision to choose post-volume 3 as the starting point. I could've chosen to start from volume 1-3 but I think there's nothing to be changed from it. Plus all the other works I've read seem to start from that point, so I had that in mind when I started writing.
> 
> RWBY was a pretty recent discovery of mine. I've heard people talk about it before but I've only started watching it at the beginning of the year. What made this series stick with me was, well, primarily those weapons. Those gun-blades, gun-hammers, gun-scythes, gun-briefcases, gun-guns, and even sword-swords. The plot has been decent and let's just say I've been a fan since I just started watching it. Some of the characters share a few similarities with Persona characters too, so it's quite easy to get into.
> 
> I purposely left the Grimm Minato faced unnamed because after all he wasn't familiar with them. If anybody is asking. All I could do was provide the characteristics through his point of view.
> 
> The fuel for this work was Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, or affectionately known in the gaming community as BBTAG, with characters from Persona 4 Arena and RWBY featured together.
> 
> All in all I'm happy to be back writing and I hope you enjoy this one. Looking forward to write more of these!


	3. A Branch in the Road

It was a brand new day. With it, came more beasts which all tried to test Minato's vigilance.

What he thought was just a bird in the sky suddenly descended and plunged straight to him as if it's performing a suicide dive. He almost dodged it too late but apparently it worked wonders as it was late enough for the bird-like beast to smash into the ground head first, completely missing its target. It then collapsed onto its side, completely getting the wind knocked out of it. It appeared to have the same size as regular humans, which would cause serious injury if it actually managed to hit him.

Despite being stationery, he didn't want it to suddenly wake up and rush him from behind. He quickly approached it, grabbed its neck with his free hand, pulled back his sword and delivered a single thrust. The blade sunk halfway into the beast and through the other side of the neck before he pulled it out and let smoke emanate from the wound.

Its appearance reminded him of ravens. And like the quadrupedal beasts he had fought before, it also had part of its face covered in a bone-like mask.

Not too long after killing that beast, another appeared, and he saw it coming. He opened his legs wide enough to have a firm stance, setting his right foot out of adjacent as the hind foot, sword hanging by its hilt in his right hand, pointing slightly downwards. His left hand reached for the holster, grabbing its button without undoing it.

It descended towards him just like the last but then stopped and flapped its wings before completely changing its trajectory and gaining elevation. It appeared to have reacted to his response when he first spotted it. His gaze tracked its movement as it circled around, waiting patiently for an opening.

As he turned his whole person around to keep up with its movement, the bird-like beast briskly flapped its wings to his direction. Feathers fell from it but the kicker was that they became frozen stiff and were falling down towards him. He firmly set both feet against the ground, legs slightly bent, and pushed down with a moderate amount of force. His whole body shifted forwards and gained slight elevation as the projectiles pierced the ground right on the spot of dirt he previously stood on. He tucked his body in and rolled against the ground before coming to a complete stop in a crouched position. He swung his sword upwards and intercepted a late-coming projectile, producing a sound not unlike metal clashing against another solid material as it deviated away from its target.

Only when he looked behind to see where the projectiles fell he realized how far out of the way he dodged. There was quite a distance between him and the sharp things, but it never crossed his mind that he had dodged the equivalent of halfway across the road which could easily fit four to five cars side-by-side.

The ease of movement and seemingly increased athletic capabilities felt very much unfamiliar to him at first but he had been quickly adapting to it. His jumps and leaps had been more floaty starting from the time he climbed up a tree near the abandoned campsite he woke up in. It's true that all the fighting before, exterminating Shadows and eliminating the Dark Hour, came with the natural benefits of betterment in fitness and general physical capabilities but he didn't recall ever being able to jump neither as far nor as high. Gravity didn't seem to be the cause evident with the way he dropped the empty can of beans the night before.

The enemy above provided little to no variety in attacks, choosing to stay way out of reach while hoping it would finally hit its target. This prompted him to take out the silver gun, quickly pointed the barrel to his head and pull the trigger.

Orpheus was in the forefront of his mind when he did this. The master of strings quickly grabbed the musical instrument strapped to its back and hovered in front of its user to deflect some of the feather projectiles which would hit him otherwise. Some that weren't deflected bounced off the Persona's prosthetic body, leaving the user completely unscathed.

Without further command, Orpheus held its lyre in one hand, the other hand picked the strings as its red eyes lit up in a tint of bright magenta, a typical spellcasting gesture for the master of strings. The bird-like beast's balance became slightly disrupted with the ensuing explosion just right next to its face. It lost altitude following another explosion but still maintaining flight. It then completely lost its bearing and plummeted when an explosion bigger than the previous two grazed its bone-like face armor.

Orpheus receded into his mind as the beast, which looked slightly larger than the previous one, hit the ground with smoke emanating from the part of the skull which had cracked after the barrage of explosions. Minato gathered up flames in his free hand, running towards the downed beast. When he was close enough, he planted one foot at the front, and thrusted his fiery free hand forwards.

The bird-like beast could do little as the trailing fireball coming from the human crushed its face and shattered the bone mask it was wearing. The smoke billowed even larger as it became completely incapacitated as a result of the attacks.

Minato, again, didn't want to take any risks. He took a few steps before leaping into the air with the sword raised with both hands. He landed on top of the helpless thing with the sword jammed into the exposed part of its face. He watched the eyes of the victim went from burning red to dimmed red and finally blanked out. The whole thing disintegrated beneath his feet, leaving only feathers in the ground.

He recalled fighting a whole archetype of Shadows in the Dark Hour similar to the bird-like beasts he just killed. The difference between those two was in its capabilities. While both kinds of bird-likes were capable of flight and physical attacks with their own bodies, the bird-like Shadows' other capabilities was casting spells, a striking difference from the beast's own special attacking properties. Fighting those feather-shooting beasts would be a nightmare in the corridors and tight quarters of Tartarus whilst fighting outside with buildings and other things around would likely cause collateral damage, reminding him of the love hotel which got completely destroyed after two big Arcana Shadows were slain.

The rest of the morning went quite smoothly by his standards. There were times when he got into battle but he had been hanging back in combat, letting the Personas do the fighting for him, summoning the lower-level ones to get warmed up. He would occassionally jump in to deliver the killing blow or just to divert the beasts' attention away making them easy targets for the Personas to dispatch.

Treating Personas like allies in battle and letting them fight with the best of their capabilities was something he had successfully experimented in the past. Beings that originally became masks to get him through hardships now walked alongside him through the hardships, was the way Elizabeth put it. At first it required a high level of concentration to maintain the Personas' corporal form long enough for them to do more than just unleashing one type of skill at a time but the training proved to be very rewarding. There were risks of the Personas losing control and doing what they weren't supposed to as it actually happened before.

He finally reached a fork in the road as he entered a part of the forest which appeared to have been burned down. Up ahead was a wooden sign with four areas written in it. They were made to look like arrows indicating the locations reachable in each directions.

Should he choose to turn back, the way would lead him to Higanbana. Should he turn right, he could either reach Kuchinashi or Mistral. Should he turn left, the one settlement he could reach was Kuroyuri.

There were problems, however.

First of all, it didn't say how far away the locations were. That being said, he had been walking for a couple of days, coming from the direction which would lead him to Higanbana. It wasn't that hard to conclude that it would take more than two days of walking to get there. Even less, if he would hitch a ride. He hadn't seen anyone pass him on the road, much less finding a vehicle to get on. He did consider trying to tame one of those beasts and use them as a mean of transportation but considering they had all been trying to kill him on sight, it wasn't that hard to figure out they couldn't be pacified, at least not by someone who had never seen them before until yesterday.

He looked to the right branch of the road. In the distance he could see mountains so it was either the settlements were located on the foot of the mountain and it might not be that far to reach either Kuchinashi or Mistral by sundown, or that he had to go up and down the mountain before he had a sliver of hope in finding civilization.

Before he could even look left, he noticed the sign pointing towards Kuroyuri had been crossed out. Granted he was not an expert, but it wouldn't be far-fetched to think the place used to exist but had been flattened to the ground or that there were remains of the settlement, just not occupied.

He took the time to think as he didn't sense any immediate danger, sitting on the wooden barriers of the road.

Walking to Higanbana would mean he could potentially run into a gauntlet of those beasts again. As much as he'd like to think he could simply beat them all, there was always a risk of it not turning out that way.

In the end, he chose to go right, hoping to reach one of the two areas. He hurled the bag on his back and picked up his sword as he started walking.

The road took him uphill. He wanted to feel relieved about the lack of confrontation, but he had come to learn that this world didn't take no prisoners. Death could come to anyone at anytime.

Elizabeth described Ruby's late friend as by far the best fighter among the academy students, possessing an ability even he would struggle to counter because of two reasons; back in his world such ability was considered mythical, and that it was effective against virtually any type of armament. If that kind of person could perish in battle, it wouldn't be far-fetched to think he could meet the same fate.

Therefore, one could never be too cautious in Remnant, especially when they're alone.

The uphill road seemingly had no end in sight until he spotted a cave in the distance. As the weather didn't seem to show any signs of letting up, he considered the spot as a camping site for the night.

As he entered the cave, however, he figured he should reconsider. It wasn't a very good sight. It appeared to have witnessed a gruesome battle. He ran ahead and managed to find the other end of the cave which was actually a cliff overlooking the dense forest. A town could be spotted in the distance. Relative to his position, and the direction from which he entered the cave, he could discern the area in the distance as Kuroyuri. There was a path leading away from the cave but it had been deemed unwalkable due to a landslide taking out a good chunk of it.

With everything noted in his head, he turned back to examine the cave. Weapons were laid all over the place and stuck on the with the weapons were ripped pieces of clothing, flags, and banners. Puddles of blood were all over the ground, some of which were gigantic and shaped like giant horseshoes.

The last thing he wanted was to be killed in his sleep as any one of those beasts could get in and get a jump on him at any moment. Therefore, he decided not to rest in the cave for the night. One thing he could do, however, was arm himself to the teeth.

Despite having the one-handed sword as his primary weapon, at times he switched to something else. Any type of weapon the personnel of SEES wield, he would go get one for himself. Mitsuru was baffled by this at first when he came to her for a fencing crash course but came to appreciate it due to how quickly he was able to apply the techniques in battle. Not to mention he seemed to get it down just as well with other types of weapons. That versatility came in handy at times as they had to adapt in the middle of explorations and battles.

He never tried taking up one of Aigis' armaments because it wasn't made for him and that high school students carrying huge firearms would turn a lot of heads. As for the knives Koromaru was always seen with, he simply forgot about it.

He zipped his jacket and attached the extras he had crafted hastily onto the Evoker belt. They included a leather sheathe cut down to fit his one-handed sword, a holster for a two-headed axe which he could use either with one or two hands, and a quiver containing salvaged arrows. He wore the white belt around the jacket and sheathed the sword beside the silver gun. A recurve bow slung over his shoulder across his body and picked up the spear which he would also use as a walking staff.

Initially he planned on finding another path which he might have missed but instead his legs brought him back to the branch in the road from earlier. With the sky getting increasingly covered in dark clouds and thunder sounding in the distance, rain was imminent. And from the look of it, Kuroyuri wasn't far away.

One thing was for certain. The beasts just didn't leave him alone. On the positive side, he could use them as practice dummies. The quadrupedal beast he spotted just as he got past the crest leading up to the settlement pointed on the way, for example.

He moved as close as he could without attracting it before he hid behind one of the dead trees on the side of the road. The bush next to it looked tempting but it would be quite difficult to use the bow from within. He placed the spear against the tree and climbed on it, gaining an even higher vantage point. He took the bow out, held it in his left hand before pulling out an arrow with his right, attaching it to the string as he got a good look at the beast strutting back and forth across the road.

The bow was the best one he could find in the pile of weapons strewn all over the cave, but even it looked to be barely servicable. He held it forward, but didn't pull the string all the way fearing something might break. To compensate for this, he only slightly tilted the bow downwards. The wind was quite favorable for it, as he looked ahead, zeroing on the target.

The arrow he fired hit the ground in front of the beast. It stopped on its tracks, looked at the arrow before entering an alerted state. Although instead of running away, it did a full sweep with its vision trying to determine where the arrow might come from. It hadn't spotted him as he quickly loaded another arrow and adjusting his aim. This time he brought the bow almost fully straight forward and fired once more at the now stationary target. The arrow pierced its back, just missing the many thorns it had. It growled in pain which confirmed the hit. The bad news was he underestimated the level of intelligence the beast possessed as it was able to discern the direction the arrow was coming from, to its right. Even more so when it looked up and spotted him standing on the tree branch. Its glowing red gaze met his uncovered bluish silver iris. The element of surprise was gone.

He slung the bow back across his body and thought about when to time the plunge if he didn't want to get impaled by the beast approaching his position at full speed. Without taking his eyes off it, he reached for the sword until suddenly it leaped, gaining enough altitude to collide with the tree, and him.

Out of surprise, his right foot moved from the branch and stepped on nothing but air. Then gravity pulled it down, along with the rest of him. He managed to just hang on to the branch with his left hand as the beast flew right above him and crashed onto the ground, taking down one of the trees with it. He let go of the branch and dropped down to the ground as well, taking the spear he had rested against the tree with his right hand. His right foot quickly set in as the hind foot and pointed the spear forwards, his left hand grabbing the shaft as he took a defensive stance.

However, the beast wasn't seen as he backed out onto the open road where at least he had some room to work with. He thought it had disappeared until he was proven wrong about five seconds later. It leaped off the crest of the hill and was plunging towards him. It surprised him yet again as he was ill-prepared for the plunging attack. There was nowhere to go. Out of split-second reflex, he brought the spear up and took a couple of steps forward, missing its claw but not its sheer weight and size falling down on him. And then, there was nothing.

The beast was rendered immobile, its eyes turned dim red. It appeared to be gravely injured as it emitted a large cloud of smoke. Something had impaled it. It entered its belly and came out of its back, as if was an extra thorn. Seconds later, it got tipped it onto its side and continued to be unable to move on its own.

Having Personas that had an innate resistance to getting crushed turned out to be the most useful, otherwise Minato would have been seriously injured as well. He rolled the incapacitated beast aside and got up on his knees to take a closer look at it. The spear got in all the way as he could see the head sticking out from its back. It was quite difficult to pull out, so he waited for it to actually die and disappear. When it did, he found out why the spear couldn't be pulled out. The shaft had been bent due to the force. With that, he decided to leave the spear behind.

Another quadrupedal beast rested idly in the middle of the road as Kuroyuri came into view. He figured it was time for an experiment.

Again, he climbed up a tree and brandished his bow and arrow. This time, he wanted to put a spark into his shot, and had an idea on how to do it. He touched the tip of the arrow and muttered a spell, producing lightning sparks at his fingertips. He lightly rubbed it until it was completely imbued with electricity. With that, he nocked the arrow, hoping the effect would last long enough and be strong enough to do what he thought some electricity would be able to do to a nervous system. He aimed at the beast, determined to not miss the first shot time around and released it while holding his breath.

This time, the shot was on target. The lightning-imbued arrow pierced one of the beast's hind foot. He had a Persona set to summon as counteract in case it tried hurling itself towards him as he watched the beast enter an alerted state.

The beast could move, but it lost any motoric functions around the area where the arrow had hit him. As a result, it couldn't even stand. This was the perfect opportunity for him to quickly end it. He was quite far away so simply jumping down and end it himself didn't seem like the fastest way to do it. Luckily, he's got the Evoker already pointed to his head.

"Oberon!"

The Midsummer Knight raised its rapier and lightning struck the beast. It didn't seem to hurt much but its motoric nerves had been completely shut down as a result. For good measure, the Persona approached it and landed a clean slash, cleaving the neck open with its sword. The battle had been quickly won as the beast disappeared upon defeat, much to his relief. The Persona kept watch as he got off the tree and walked to the road. He then dispelled it once he was sure danger could no longer be sensed.

There would be no more confrontation as he finally reached the entrance of Kuroyuri. Even from there, the village looked like it had seen better days. Buildings, or what's left of them, devoid of colour, some had burn marks and covered in ashes. For something which architecture reminded him of Japan in history, it seemed to have been ahead of its time.

Searching through the area would take a lot of time had he not found a bicycle under one the buildings which had raised floors. It appeared to be in better shape, at least compared to everything else around. The drivetrain had completely ceased as he checked whether it still worked and found it getting stuck every rotation or two. A little elbow grease almost made the problem go away but without lubricant the chains and gears would just produce loud noises he couldn't bear for too long. The rear brake was shot, the front brake still worked to a degree. Still, he decided to get on it and give it a little spin around the forsaken area anyway.

Everything else was pretty much the same, even the walls of the village. Looking at the whole area, and the beasts which he had killed, there really was a good reason to build fortifications along the borders. Even though in the end it wasn't enough and the area had to be abandoned.

He looked at the bell tower in the middle of the area and decided if he was going to rest, he would do it in there. Predictably, the door was locked and he kicked it open, nudging whatever remains of a chair against the handle to keep it shut while he was inside. He didn't fail to notice what looked to be a couple of large impact marks with cracks traveling in a mesh-like pattern on one side of the tower as he stepped inside. One of the marks was larger that the other. He wondered what sort of impact might have caused that and whether the wall would gave way somehow.

From the highest floor just below the bell, it was evident that electricity had been around in this place when it was still in its glory days. But for the moment there was nothing. No generator, no working power line, not even an upright lamp post. Going out in the night would be dreadful, and suicidal. The beasts all had predominantly dark colour so he perceived them as things that especially thrive in darkness. Yet they seem to be everywhere during daytime as well.

He entered the bell tower with the intention to take a break. And so he did. He placed all of his stuff except the Evoker on the floor, leaned back against the chair's backrest and closed his eyes.

Sometime later, his eyes snapped open to the sound of screaming, growling, and crashing. His watch indicated it was currently well into the night. What was supposed to be a short nap had turned into a slumber. The fractured moon shined bright, and it provided some lighting on the surface.

It was dark out, almost pitch black if it wasn't for the moonlight. Nevertheless, he looked out from all four sides to find where the sounds came from. As he looked out to the square, he saw smoke, and buildings collapsing. Then a speck of bright clothing became visible on the ground, followed by one more. They moved, backing towards the bell tower, to his position. He looked out in the distance and found not one, but two glowing pair of red eyes. Those beasts had come again, and they're attacking people.

He came down and out the bell tower to the sight of a woman laid on her back nearby a dead tree. Walking into the square, approaching her was the beast that had caused it. When he looked at it from above he only spotted one pair of eyes. Turned out there were two of them.

It was a completely new species, much bigger than the ones he had fought so far. The most basic way to describe the beast was that it took shape of a man riding a horse, except he couldn't see the legs of the rider. A fusion of man and horse was the next closest thing he could think of. However, the horse retained its head and the man was attached to its back, making it look like a man riding a horse at first glance.

The helpless woman was within touching distance of the beast as it raised one of its feet, he had to do something.

"Orpheus!"

With the pull of the trigger, he placed Orpheus directly in front of the woman. The leg of the beast came down and the master of strings intercepted it in time with its lyre, holding it from coming down on them. The situation had been held to a standstill as went on to check on the woman.

She appeared to be much older by at least ten years. She had a fairly tanned complexion and brown hair which had been tied up to a ponytail. She wore detachable shoulder pads and breastplate over a sleeveless martial arts shirt, plus elbow pads and fingerless gloves. Simple trousers and a pair of greaves completed the look.

Without further ado, he lifted the woman's arm, hanging it on his shoulders. He moved her away from the reach of the beast and rested her against the bell tower. Orpheus responded in kind, parrying the leg of the beast which it had held and started pushing it back.

It appeared the woman was hurt, evident by her constant clutching of the shoulders. Even so, her spirit seemed to not have faltered. Minato looked at Orpheus one more time and then to the woman.

"Stay here."

He stood up and began walking towards the battlefield, pulling out his sword and held it in his right hand and the Evoker in his left.

"No! You can't fight them alone!"

He turned his head to respond to the woman's cry. Them? Plural? He had only seen one so far, currently battling Orpheus. A combination of fire spells and the smack of the lyre gave problems to the beast, which went away almost in an instant when the supposedly limp arms of the human part of the beast became active. The first arm did a vertical motion which Orpheus side-glanced. It parried the other arm but then got hit square with the arm that it had avoided.

Minato watched the force sent his Persona lookalike flying. It looked to be endless as Orpheus looked to be able to recover, until it crashed into a building, flattening it to the ground. The Persona had gone out cold, disappearing as smoke billowed from the crash.

When the smoke cleared, he understood what the woman meant when she used a plural pronoun.

Defeating the biggest beast so far, which seemed to possess intelligence, was already looking to be a daunting challenge. As the smoke completely disappeared, the challenge just doubled itself, just like the beast doubling its number. Another one had been waiting for the smoke to clear to reveal itself.

Minato continued walking to the square as the other beast joined its kin on the other side. Then both parties stopped. They watched as he brought the Evoker to his head. Orpheus heeded his call once again, hovering just to his left. However, he wasn't going to let them defeat it again. The beasts weren't the only ones capable of bumping up their numbers.

Having not moved the gun from his head, he pulled the trigger again. A different Persona answered him. Like the enemies in front of him, it was also a combination of man and horse. Difference was it was nowhere nearly as ghastly. Described as a host of female figures who choose those who may live and die in battle and take the slain to Valhalla, Valkyrie brandished its twin swords and assumed its position to its user's right.

Minato's biggest test yet was in front of him. In the remains of a forsaken village, under the moonlit sky, their gazes meet. It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually quite confused with what to do in this chapter. The general idea was to kinda showcase what Minato might be able to do with the Universe Arcana in my interpretation. Of course, this was inspired by some other works which seem to go similar ways. Hopefully I'll be able to show Minato's progress with his newfound abilities well.
> 
> As I got further with watching RWBY, the ideas just kept flooding in but I gotta tackle one chapter at a time. I have written snippets based on some RWBY scenes but, well, first I gotta get there in this fic.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this as usual and stay safe in this unprecedented time in which even going outside is heavily discouraged.


	4. Battle Under the Moonlight

The two parties stared at each other as the tension continued to build. No one seemed to be willing to make the first move. It would remain so, if not for someone firing at one of the beasts.

Minato looked over to the direction where the shot came from and found the woman she had carried to safety running into battle carrying an interestingly-shaped rifle. She stopped midway to fire another shot before taking her position beside one of Minato's Persona, Valkyrie,

She seemed to realize that her shots were ineffective, so she lowered the weapon, and then held it by its barrel. Upon a brief glance, he noticed it looked to be shaped like a baseball bat with a handle roughly twice as long as normal-sized ones, as the rifle's shoulder rest repositioned itself on its main body, making the weapon resemble a battle axe. The battle axe became a two-headed battle axe when another blade popped up on the opposite side of the bat.

This was the first time he had seen one of those weapons which he thought couldn't be true when Elizabeth touched on the subject. It was an interesting sight, but there was no time to marvel on it as they had a battle in their hands.

"I told you, don't fight them alone. But with the two of us, plus these interesting summons of yours..." The woman spoke, hurling the axe onto her shoulders.

The beasts do seem like they weren't going to let their prey get away. He holstered the Evoker, and got onto his relaxed stance, sword hanging down and legs slightly opened, his free hand ready to either grab the silver gun or throw the elements at their enemies. The woman held her weapon with both hands again as they slowly walk - hover in Orpheus' case - forward.

It was one of the beasts that threw the first swing, targeting Orpheus yet again. The Persona dodged the attack by flying to the side while Minato shifted backwards as he saw the possibility of the huge black hand crushing him. With speed, Orpheus flew towards the human face of the beast, hitting it twice with the lyre before kicking it back and unleashing a fire spell which staggered it.

Its user charged at the beast's horse legs and shifted forwards as its other hand was trying to grab him. The forward shift carried a lot of energy which he transferred to a one-handed backhand swing that successfully hit the leg he was targeting. He glanced at the horse part of the beast's underbelly to find it almost nonexistent. There were only ribs dangling without any evidence of a long, flat, breastbone as part of the beast's whole anatomy.

The leg he had sliced did emanate smoke, but it was still functional. He tried attacking it again, this time with a two-handed slice only to have the leg execute a kicking motion. When he did see the attack, it was almost too late to react. He did his best to block it with his sword but couldn't catch all of it, resulting in him getting slightly staggered. He saw a black hand trying to grab him in his peripheral vision and quickly rolled away from it.

The other beast had been engaged in battle with the axe-wielding woman and Minato's other active Persona, Valkyrie. She went around the beast, avoiding its extended arms trying to grab her as the twin-bladed Persona targeted the legs. It fared much better than its user did due to its twin blades, causing major damage one of them as it became limp but not completely dismembered from its main body.

The Persona would've quickly targeted another leg had it not been met by the beast's arm in a sweeping attack. The beast suddenly became aggressive towards the attacker of its legs, launching both arms at it. It danced around the attacks while maintaining close proximity to its body and occassionally parrying the arms with its swords. The beast's attention towards the horse-riding being the axe-wielder had never seen before gave her a chance to try doing damage of her own.

Minato and his Persona lookalike had been dodging the attacks while occassionally landing hits on their own until the latter was caught in the beast's grasp. It pinned the Persona all the way and through one of the derelict buildings. He watched the rubble buried them, with the huge lyre dropped to the ground. By reflex, he leaped to miss its other arm trying to do the same to him. As he landed right on the outstretched arm, he ran up on it, setting its sights on the human part of the beast's neck. He looked to be home free, until the arm that had trapped Orpheus receded back and was whipped towards him. The recovery took him by surprise and his reaction was too late. It grabbed him and lifted him high in the air.

The arm might have grabbed him by his body but his upper limbs remained free. Having the sword in his right hand, he began stabbing at the arm in quick succession. The stabs managed to injure the arm with smoke coming out of the stab marks. However it wasn't enough. In response, he was suddenly lifted even higher in the air then got thrown out. His body helplessly flew across the battlefield until a collision with one of the houses stopped the motion.

He didn't just collide but he went through the house, specifically through the roof before completely coming to a stop on the wooden floor which became slightly caved in due to the impact. To his surprise, he was still pretty much alive. The impact knocked the wind out of him, but he was alive nevertheless. He could still feel all of his limbs as he was able to move his fingers and his toes. Normally that kind of impact might result in him getting paralyzed or even killed. This wasn't the case. Still, it wasn't a pleasant feeling. He would rather not experience it again because it might end up differently otherwise.

He got out of the remains of the house before the roof completely collapsed. The beasts were still in the square, with only the woman fighting them. Valkyrie probably got dispelled due to either getting defeated or the fact that he was momentarily out of commotion. He quickly rejoined the battle and was just in time to lure away one of the beasts as the she would get overwhelmed otherwise.

He wasn't going to play anymore games with them. Getting tossed through the house once was enough. It was time to go big or go home. He needed a Persona that could assist him and the axe-wielding woman at the same time.

"Thor!"

From earlier battles, he knew that electricity would be able to impair the beasts' motoric sense. The other reason was that he needed one who could hit hard on their own, without causing too much of a strain to maintain in battle as he felt he wasn't quite at peak condition yet.

Thor charged at the beast its user was currently engaged in battle. With its trusty hammer, it parried the first arm that tried to grab it, then sidestepped the other arm. Then the beast was within the God of Thunder's touching distance. Its elemental trail followed the being's mighty swing of a hammer as it hit face of the horse. The attack was so powerful it made the trail of electricity spread throughout the beast's whole body, completely numbing it as it received yet another swing of the hammer, leaving it down on its belly.

The Persona moved onto the next target. Raising the hammer into the air, lightning struck just in front of the enemy's face. The attack might have missed but it put the beast off balance, setting it up for yet another one of Thor's special which had taken down the other beast.

Seeing the other beast completely taken down but not necessarily out, the axe-wielding woman decided to move in for the kill. She disregarded the limp arms and legs and went straight for the jugular. Due to its inability to react, it only took one hit to cut the head off. As the beast disappeared into the night sky, she took the chance to take a breather. Fighting them alone, even only for a short while, had been more taxing than she thought.

Meanwhile, Thor's special had missed the target. Although it was able to put the horse out of commission by squashing it square in the face with the next hit, completely stunning it. The attack wasn't strong enough to leave the same effect it inflicted on the other beast, but it was enough to keep things controllable.

Headache began creeping inside Minato's head, which meant maintaining the Persona had put enough strain on him and it was time to reel Thor back into his mind. He dispelled it, but not before it turned towards him and gave a curt nod. He acknowledged the nod and replied with the same gesture as the God of Thunder disappeared.

Thor's attacks had left the horse part of the one beast laid on the floor while the human part remained upright. He knew he couldn't afford to let it get completely get back up to its feet. He had to go for it. Despite the headache, he could still summon Personas, just not ones with the same or even higher capacity than Thor for the moment.

He had a plan in mind, and had picked one Persona he thought could carry out the task.

"Sarasvati…"

As soon as the Persona appeared, it was quickly caught by the arm and pinned against the bell tower. However, it was by design. The Hindu Goddess of Knowledge squirmed its hands free and was able to reach for its musical instrument. With a stroke, it trapped the arm by completely freezing it together with a large portion of the bell tower. The beast didn't realize this was possible and tried to struggle free, only for the arm and the bell tower to not even budge an inch.

The axe-wielding woman responded the fastest. Running towards it before using the bell tower's railings as leverage to jump high enough in the air to reach the trapped arm. With one swing, she cut it off by its thinnest part, which had been stretched out. The beast roared, feeling the great pain that had followed from the incapacitation.

Minato dispelled the Persona from its trapped state before summoning it again. Free from any interference, Sarasvati struck the strings of its musical instrument yet again, this time targeting the downed horse, trapping it to the ground with no chance of moving them in case the paralysis from the earlier attack wore off. It dodged an incoming arm that tried to grab it then produced a giant block of ice that wrapped the hand. The weight pulled the arm down making it difficult for the beast to retract it back. Minato was beside the helpless outstretched arm on the ground as he grabbed it with his free hand, squeezed it tight, and ran his sword through it, cutting it clean off the ice that had cuffed it. The beast howled in pain yet again. It tried its hardest to move but then the horse got completely taken out by the woman, splitting its head open with its axe. All that's left was to finish it. The woman appeared to have expended all of her energy and stepped aside to let him do the honors.

And one Persona quickly stepped forth, setting itself in the forefront of its user's mind. After what happened earlier in the fight, it was only fitting.

"ORPHEUS!"

The Master of Strings rose and flew at breakneck speed at the now armless beast, free from anything that would get in its way. It grasped the human neck with both hands, its magenta gaze clash against the beast's crimson. The scream of the beast was returned in kind as the Persona's eyes lit up. Explosion engulfed the beast from within, which also completely melt away the ice which had trapped a good portion of it. The flames burned away the rest as the beast finally disappeared, marking its defeat.

The battle had ended, and the threat was no more. With it, the adrenaline finally wore off and the soreness began setting in. He gasped for breath as he began struggling to stand on both feet. He planted his sword into the ground for support but couldn't hold it in as he dropped to his knees. To quickly mitigate this, he set a Persona in the forefront of his mind which helped with recovery without having to summon them.

He could feel that the soreness as just that, soreness. He was kicked around and even thrown into a house at one point but he was in no way incapacitated. While it was relieving to have sustained no major injuries it made him wonder whether the Universe Arcana had something to do with it. Still, it felt unpleasant to be tossed around like that and he took note of it should he ever faced those beasts again.

As he was beginning to regain his energy, as well as feeling the soreness gradually lessen, he heard a weak groan and turned to where it came from; the woman who just fought and killed the accursed beasts alongside him, sitting helplessly against one of the houses.

With the support of his sword, he stood back up and jogged towards her. Judging from the shallow breathing, and the tight grasp of the midsection, it was clear she had been injured. He laid her down on her back, and put away the hand that was hiding one of the injuries; a large bruise on the side of her abdomen. Bruises were also visible on her shoulders along with little cuts here and there.

Then something sparked inside of him to try out something new, not unlike the first time he was able to light fire out of nowhere with his own hand. He held out both hands, putting them right above the woman. As he was stating his intention to tend the wounds inside his head, his hands began to glow white, so did her whole person. He raised his eyebrow only slightly in surprise. The bruises began turning from sickly purple back to the woman's original skin tone, and the cuts all closed with no traces of blood.

Another new ability had been discovered. This healing method without having to summon a Persona, in particular, was one exclusive to Yukari back in the day. He figured it was just natural of her to be a healer even though she was quite proficient in combat despite preferring to fight from distance. She lacked firepower compared to Aigis who had firearms for upper limbs and could send Shadows flying should she needed to fight in close quarters, but her accuracy never failed her despite the lack of credit she sometimes gave herself.

The pain had dissipated, and the woman's breath began normalising. She opened her eyes and rubbed the skin where the bruises were supposed to be and found out they had completely been healed, and the cuts completely nonexistent.

"Amazing…" She sat up with one hand still rubbing her abdomen. She looked to the guy who just applied the treatment, sitting against the house with his legs stretched out, sighing in relief while sheathing his sword. She spoke again after a brief pause. "Thank you. I didn't think I'd run into a Huntsman in this forsaken area."

That term again. It sounded like a very revered occupation in this world. He could fight, and he could defeat those beasts, but he was in no way a Huntsman, if undergoing formal education to get a license for it was the requirement to go by.

"I'm not a Huntsman." He replied to the woman as such.

"You're not? That's a surprise. With abilities like that, and how you fight, you could pass as one." She picked up her rather interesting weapon. The axe blades receded back into the bat, and the bat's handle receded into its main body. She hung the now compressed weapon on her waist, where there was a special holster for it. She felt it necessary to inquire, nevertheless. "I guess you're not from these parts?"

Minato shook his head in reply.

"Figures. Your clothing looks Atlessian. Are you from Atlas?" She tilted her head.

Another name of a place he wasn't familiar with. He would have to make it somewhat a priority to learn about this world whenever he was finally safe. In any case, he shook his head again.

"Strange… I know there's somebody, or more like, a whole lineage from Atlas possessing an ability to summon like you do. But the way you perform the summoning is…" She looked at the silver gun in his holster. "…interesting. I thought you were about to kill yourself."

That's what it would look like to other people, he figured. Only SEES knew this method of summoning was a thing. The fact that there was a whole lineage who could also perform summons was new to him.

"I'm Heather. What's your name?" The woman, named Heather, introduced herself.

"Minato." He replied curtly.

"Minato? Now that name sounds like you're from these parts…" She leaned against the house, still wondering about the guy she just fought alongside. She chose to just shrug it off for the time being. "Whatever. Nice to meet you. Thanks for saving me earlier. I know it's a Huntress' job to kill those things but even we'd struggle at times. If it wasn't for you we wouldn't be sitting here."

"What were those things?" He felt it was necessary to ask. The question seemed to take her by surprise. Perhaps it was in the way he articulated it sounded like someone who just wanted to know offhandedly. Or perhaps she really found it strange that her conversation partner sounded like he had been living under a rock. She was thoroughly confused. It was to be expected on his behalf. He hadn't known their name yet he had been killing them since he arrived in this world.

"Come on, you've never heard of them? Grimm? Creatures of darkness?"

Yet more names. But, at least he now knew what those were called. He was right about them being something closely associated with darkness. Not too dissimilar to Shadows in that regard. He shook his head yet again.

"Wow, guess you really aren't from these parts… So you're a traveler or some sorts?" She waved it off for the time being, choosing to ask about things she might be able to help with.

That, he might be able to answer with some clarity. He supposed he could be classified as a traveler. To that, he nodded.

"Where are you heading?" She seemed to be catching on.

"Towns, cities, villages, whatever. I really could use someplace safe to stay." And he felt the conversation was getting somewhere.

"Well then, you should come with me. I'm from Mistral. And with this much destruction we caused, they're bound to send an airship or two. We'll just have to wait for them. The city's just past those mountains."

And she was right. Not long after, two airships arrived at the location. Whoever designed the vehicle totally took the word at face value, he thought to himself. They had difficulties spotting the people on the ground at first so Minato helped them by opening his palm and produced a flame big enough to be used as a torch. The pilot saw the marker and highlighted the two people on the ground with the spotlight and safely landed on the square.

"What happened here?" One of the airship attendant got off and approached them.

"Grimm. Bad ones…" Heather replied off-handedly to the officer as Minato took her hand and helped her stand up.

"I see. Please come with us." Fully understanding the situation just by the brief reply, the officer stepped aside, allowing the two survivors to walk into the airship.

The ride to Mistral wasn't marred with beasts now he called Grimm attacking the airship, to his relief. He felt he had seen enough fighting for the day.

He didn't know what would happen if he was being transported alone. Luckily, he had Heather, who quickly helped smooth things out by simply explaining that he was a Huntsman in training who she personally picked to go to missions with her as part of an extra learning experience before the new semester began. If it wasn't for her, he could instead get held up as he had no meaningful identification to help explain himself.

It was getting late when they were allowed to leave the police station but she offered to find him an inn to stay before she went home. While checking in, he found out that those unfamiliar plastic cards were indeed currency of Remnant, called Lien. He offered to pay on his own but she insisted she would pay and brandished her own plastic card which the receptionist took and never returned. It actually confused him. He did notice the black strip on its back and thought it would work the same way credit cards would. This would serve as the fact that some of the key things really were different compared to his previous world and that he was going to have to learn the customs to go by.

Mobile communicators also existed in this world, as evident by the piece of gadget he just purchased. He quietly handed his own Lien to the shopkeeper when Heather was looking away. He thought she already helped him enough and didn't want to trouble her any further by spending more of her Lien. The particular device was called a Scroll, aptly named for something which expanded into two parts producing a holographic screen in between.

After that, they had dinner, and she walked him back to the inn before parting ways. As they exchanged contacts, she told her to come to her house the next day during breakfast because she admittedly had some questions for him, although she would understand if he refused. It didn't take him long to accept the invitation because he too had some questions. She marked the address of her house on the map and then sent it to his Scroll and bid farewell.

As he entered his room, he noticed the time was almost midnight if his watch was to go by. According to the clock, it seemed to be correct relative to his knowledge. That aside, he was overall relieved that he could finally get some rest without worrying about things trying to take his life. He had shower, and immediately hit the deck as he really could use the rest.

Finding Ruby Rose would have to wait for another day. Maybe Heather could help him with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when Qrow was looking for Huntsmen and Huntresses to help him before having to settle with just Ruby and co? One of them was Heather Shields, who was indicated to be either missing or dead after Qrow asked for her whereabouts. Well, this is that Heather Shields whose appearance I made up since I never seen her photograph anywhere in the show. I'm taking her home to her family, and she'll be featuring in the next chapter.
> 
> The original plan for the Nucleavee battle was to have Minato meet team RNJR and Qrow in Kuroyuri, but then I watched volume 5 and found out there's quite a big time skip between the major events. With that in mind, I had to come up with something new that doesn't need feature the time skip, and I hope it turned out well. I edited out the tail part of chapter 3 just to keep the continuity consistent to this one.
> 
> As usual, I hope you enjoy this chapter and stay safe in the comfort of your own house.


	5. Everybody's Missing

It was a nice morning as Minato found himself standing at the doorstep of a simple house in the residential area of Mistral. Getting to the address Heather had given him wasn't too difficult despite the city's hilly landscape. He totally didn't intend on coming to someone's house in the morning for free breakfast, as much as he'd like to admit otherwise.

He knocked on the door since they didn't have a bell. Heather's voice could be heard from inside the house, followed by footsteps soon after.

"Ah, Minato. Good morning." She opened the door herself. "Slept well last night?"

He nodded in reply. Having a mattress to sleep in was very much welcome after the rough start.

"Come on in. You're just in time to join us for breakfast." She stepped aside to let him in.

Once inside, she led him past the living room and onto the dining table where two other people were already sitting in, her husband and daughter. They got off the table as she brought the guest in.

"Honey, I'd like you to meet Minato. He helped me get home last night." She introduced the guest first. "This is Kaelan, my husband." Before continuing, she picked up the girl and held her in an embrace. "And this is Talia, my daughter."

Kaelan thanked the guest as they shook hands. The little girl seemed a impassive at first but then held a hand out which he shook, before patting her head and smiled at her, putting the girl at ease. But even he knew deep inside that they couldn't be any happier.

Heather talked about what happened during her mission over breakfast, and told her family about how he met Minato in the destroyed city. He slipped in a few questions about the world of Remnant, which she answered with the help of her husband. It also served as a little learning session for their little daughter.

The one thing that really caught his attention was the fact that Grimm were attracted to negative emotions. According to Heather, negativity stemming from doubt, fear, discontent, confrontation, and many more, could lead to Grimm invading the area. He was astounded by this piece of information. It wasn't unlike Erebus, who fed off humanity's desire for their own death. While people couldn't see Erebus as it only targeted the collective unconsciousness, the Grimm were living amongst the people of Remnant, making the threat of destruction all too real. And yet, to him it didn't lessen Erebus' potential one bit because he knew what would happen otherwise.

After breakfast, it was time for some questions of her own over a nice cup of coffee. Heather seemed trustworthy enough so Minato told her about how he was told of a major event that happened some time back, which the people of Remnant had dubbed the "Fall of Beacon". He left out the details on how he got to this world, but he told the Huntress about how similar institutions could be next on the list, which was why he agreed to go on the journey.

In response, she showed him a video of a public statement released by Ghira Belladonna, chieftain of Menagerie, an island south of the continent which was populated by another living kind in Remnant, called the Faunus. She paused the video early on to give him an explanation about them. In short, they retained their original human anatomy, but were given animal-like characteristics and traits. There had been a lot discrimination against them, even though it had been less prevalent in the recent time thanks to an organization called the White Fang helping bridge the gap between Humans and Faunus. The level of discrimination could be compared to that of race and skin color in his world.

He couldn't see why the discrimination existed for he thought Humans and Faunus were of no difference. He perceive them as equals as the Faunus seem to be just as intelligent of a life form as Humans. Then again, if Faunus existed in his world, they were likely to be subjected to the same treatment because people blindly fear what they didn't want to understand.

The real issue, he thought, was the Grimm. They didn't seem to discriminate between Humans and Faunus, wanting to eradicate both kinds all the same. It baffled him on how the two similar kinds were still at odds when their actual adversary was in front of them. There were no such things as Grimm in his world, and Shadows typically couldn't gain access to the real domain despite the attempts of some to mesh the human world with the collective unconsciousness.

She resumed the video playback. It confirmed what Elizabeth had told him, that another Huntsman academy were to be subject of an attack. This time Haven Academy, situated here in Mistral, to his convenience. The set date was expected to be tomorrow night according to the time the news and the video was published.

After the chieftain had finished his speech and was about to hand it over to her daughter who was a survivor of the aforementioned unfortunate event herself, cameras of the press were diverted to a member of the White Fang in the crowd, evident by the white mask with red markings. She had been blending in before she revealed herself. She spoke about how the Faunus had always been treated differently, how they were always ignored during certain events and situations. She slammed the chieftain and his family, labelling them as the worst of the Faunus for asking their kind to help Humans stop an attack which could potentially scar Remnant as much as the Fall of Beacon did. She added that to truly help their kind, they must instead side with the splinter group the chieftain had spoken about earlier. She advocated the group's leader, Adam Taurus, as the one true saviour of the Faunus, the one who were set to bring about the kind's future. The video ended after the confrontation as the White Fang member fled from the scene.

"After this video went out, the council sent a lot of Huntsmen and Huntresses including me to missions with the objective to stop them from even preparing for the attack in one way or another, not to mention dealing with the Grimm surge. I don't know how the others are doing, but let's say I kinda…succeeded. I just couldn't get outta there as planned." Heather told Minato. "I'm going to make a report of the mission then go hand it over as soon as I'm finished. Would you like to come?"

He accepted the offer, and added that he was told to find Ruby Rose, who he already learned to be one of the survivors of the Fall of Beacon as well. Before she could ask, he only said that it was super important.

"Ruby Rose…? Can't say I personally know the girl." Heather held her chin with one hand. "But I think we might see her once we get to the council. If not, let's hope she'll be in town when classes are starting because after all those kids still need to undergo education to get their license. I'm sorry I couldn't help you any further than that."

Not prying was enough of a help, because explaining it would take quite long and she was going to be busy. He finished his coffee, thanked the family for breakfast and bid farewell shortly after.

He decided to take the scenic route back to the inn which was located near the city's market district, just below the spot he chose to take a rest and get a look of the great view in offer. Classic yet seemingly timeless architecture with a waterfall which looked to be artificial yet didn't detract from the whole panoramic value. The towers did remind him of Japanese castles. In fact, the city and the people's choice of garment wouldn't look too out of place in ancient Japan at all, it made him feel like he just woke up in the past. His Gekkoukan High outfit certainly didn't help him fit in with the locals, but it was a non-issue. Heather told him that it was a signature thing around Mistral and other cities in the continent of Anima.

He arrived back at his room, took his jacket off and fiddled with his scroll as he laid on his bed. Internet also existed in this world, but in this world stuff appeared to have become more on-demand and more on-the-go than ever. He figured his old world had achieved this level of technology in some way or another. The Scroll and the many stuff it provided was quite overwhelming at first, coming from someone who lived in the era of flip phones and thick laptops. He put the scroll down on the nightstand beside his bed and closed his eyes as he still felt quite sleepy.

The ring of said mobile device woke him up from his sleep. He picked it up and the screen popped in, displaying an incoming call from Heather which he picked up right away.

_"It's me. I'm about to head out. Are you up and about?"_

The time indicated it was afternoon, just after lunchtime. He thought the report would take longer to make but then he remembered the woman she was speaking with had already been on a lot of missions and she probably had some ways to compile one quickly. Anyway, he got up and walked to the bathroom while holding the Scroll with one hand.

"Yeah… Give me a minute."

_"Great. The way passes through the area you're staying, so…meet you at the inn?"_

"Sure. I'll be waiting."

_"Alright. I'll be on my way."_

He slipped the scroll into his pocket and went on to wash his face. Then he got down to the market district to get some lunch. He chose to have noodles, which in its presentation heavily reminded him of ramen. The portion looked overwhelming at first but he had always been a closet glutton, eating bowls of them at one go especially after a Tartarus exploration during the night.

With his mopping blue hair and black jacket, he was quite easy to spot amongst the locals. Heather who was about to enter the inn walked into the market district instead and sat at the noodle stall while looking at him slurping the last of the second bowl of noodles. She offhandedly commented on how much he ate compared to breakfast back at her place, which he only chuckled in reply.

They left the area to go to the council, located at Haven Academy sometime after he finished having lunch. The way there would have been a hike if it wasn't for the elevator system as the institution was located at the top of the mountain where the whole city was built on.

"Welcome to Haven Academy." Heather introduced the place as they stepped into the institute's grounds. The architecture and the way the buildings were arranged reminded him of royal palaces. He felt a sense of serenity, safety, and calmness around the area, taking the name it had been given to its core. "This is one of the Huntsman academies in all of Remnant, and the only one in the Kingdom. This place serves as a body of higher learning for aspiring future Huntsmen and Huntresses from all over Anima, though they also accept students from other continents. They can either be graduates of many primary combat schools in the region, or those who received personal invitation if they're considered to be already skilled enough."

Heather showed him around the place while also checking if anybody was around, because after all many of the staff were also Huntsmen, and those she was at least acquainted with. According to her, the academies were on break, therefore it was to be expected that not many people would be around.

"CCT Tower." She pointed out as Minato was looking at one of the two high-rise structures when they walked into the large courtyard surrounded by forest and a huge hall. "They provide wireless connectivity over large distances, allowing for worldwide communication. All Huntsman academies have at least one of these. This is part of what allowed us to witness the attack on Vale and Beacon Academy on live broadcast..."

Her tone became somewhat somber when she mentioned that tragedy. It was understandable, given the repercussions. She then added that comms in Vale, where Beacon Academy was located, had been down since then as it successfully disabled the CCT Tower. It apparently had also brought down the aforementioned worldwide communication, as the four kingdoms hadn't been able to communicate with each other since, a glaring flaw in the system's design. Although, citizens inside each kingdoms could still use Scrolls to communicate with each other, so long as they were within coverage.

"Aren't there satellites?" He felt compelled to ask. CCT Towers sounded good but it didn't seem like the best idea to have things that can provide wide-range communication to only be installed on land instead of out in the space where they would be difficult to reach.

"They did try, but ultimately failed since Dust lost its power as soon as it leaves Remnant's atmosphere." Was the answer she could come up with.

The brief tour ended as they stopped at the place Heather was meaning to visit, the Huntsman-council liaison office. It was a building with a yard that had a pond in the middle along with benches to sit on. As she went inside, he chose to stay out while looking at the holographic screen displaying the list of Huntsmen and their mission status. Interestingly enough, he didn't find Heather's name in it. However, there was Zach Hyacinth, the Huntsman he had presumed dead after finding his license in the abandoned campsite.

He skirted aside the issue with not finding her name, and focused on what was displayed. Granted, he didn't know how things work but none of the ongoing missions were labeled finished or completed. They were either in progress or terminated, along with the duration of the status. Perhaps completed missions were removed from the list, but he figured there should be ways to check past missions in some sort of archive or log if they could display information as simple as ongoing ones.

Heather was taking some time in there. So after reading the list one last time, he sat on the bench and just clipped his earphones onto his ears and let the music player randomly select one song from his playlist. In fact, she was gone for quite a while as he managed to fall asleep in the bench due to how bored he was. He thought about getting up to explore the place on his own but he figured he'd rather save her the trouble of finding a missing visitor.

She found her slumbering peacefully in the bench when she was finally done with her business. He wouldn't wake up upon hearing his name so she tapped on his shoulder a few times. The bluenette's eyes flickered open, realizing he had fallen asleep and took off the metallic device he had put on his ears, letting them dangle around his neck as he stretched out his body.

"I'm sorry. I had to go around the place again." She sat next to him in the bench.

"What's happening?" He noticed her sighing in exasperation.

"There's almost nobody around, save for some staff. Even the faculties are devoid of people. Lionheart's there, though." He inquisitively raised his eyebrow over the name. "…The headmaster of Haven Academy." She added.

When she caught him looking at the mission status board she too noticed that her name wasn't on the list. The guest was probably wondering why.

"There are more Huntsmen and Huntresses in the kingdom than there are in the council's list of employees. I'm a freelancer, that's why my name's not on these boards. I can take whatever jobs I want. They happened to hire me for that one job, that's why I had to come here, turn my report in, and grab the Lien."

The bluenette hummed in understanding. The employment style did remind him a bit of investigators and soldiers who work either for the country or privately. He supposed Huntsmen and Huntresses could be seen as both, considering the assortment of jobs available.

"Have all these people returned?" He thought it was best to ask. Maybe the list hadn't been updated because nobody was around to do it. But then again, they should at least have one administrator in place even during the down times.

"No. That's the worrying bit. The attack's going to happen tomorrow night and none of them are here." She frowned. "Worst case scenario is that they've all gone either missing or dead. Some of them are assigned in places where the coverage is next to nonexistent so there's no way to contact them. And the ones I could contact haven't returned my calls. I don't like this..."

There was quite a lengthy pause as Heather became rather antsy thinking about what might be going down and her peers at the same time. Minato wasn't one to just offer reassuring words so he kept quiet. But deep down he knew would be damned if he chose to not fight if it was actually happening.

"Let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"The workshop. I'm going to borrow their tools for a bit. I want to fix my weapon and give it a little upgrade." They got up from the bench and began walking to their next destination.

On their way, she explained that future Huntsmen and Huntresses were required to create their own signature weapon during the educational period at the primary combat schools. The weapon could really be anything they wanted. Though the designs based on transformable frames, the harness of dust - Remnant's main energy source - and multi-activation modes which enabled their utilisation for both melee and ranged combat in one package had always been the go-to. It's not to say that there weren't those who preferred their weapons to be on the traditional side because it's what they're comfortable with. They typically would stick to the same weapons they had created for as long as they were Huntsmen, and it wasn't rare to see those who would add features or simply swap one for another as their preferences became more refined.

If Minato was somewhat feeling eager at the potential of making one for himself, he didn't outright show it. It sounded exciting, and he thought some of his old companions at SEES would actually love to have such weapons. Heather's weapon, called the Hurricane Slugger, would be something Junpei would love to get his hands on as it had the base design of a baseball bat. And he also wondered of all things why the Kirijo Group never thought of giving a melee weapon attachment for Aigis. The fist that could shoot itself out of the arm, named Rocket Punch, could be classified as one but none of her weapon attachments gave her the opportunity to wield sharp blades.

The workshop was free for students and alumni alike to visit all year should they ever need to. It was massive, with a lot of work benches and tools arranged tidily. There was also an area where the weapons could be tested, complete with practice dummies at their disposal.

Heather put her weapons at one of the work benches and began working on it. Minato did the same, putting his sword and the silver gun on the work bench next to hers. The first time he had to do a weapon maintenance, he just left his weapons in somebody's hands to take care with. But then he thought he would rather be doing it on his own as a mean to kill time during summer break. Suddenly he formed a little group alongside Yukari and Akihiko to do weapon maintenance together in the dorm's meeting room. Over time, everyone else would walk in and suddenly learned how to work on their own weapons, even Aigis who simply had her broken attachments shipped back to get new ones the next day because she was intrigued at how everyone else would do it. In the final weeks leading up to the last full moon battle, it had become a bonding session as everybody finally got to the same wavelength during those troubling times.

"So does the sword have a name?" Heather inquired as she disassembled her weapon into major pieces that made up its several modes.

Minato shook his head. The one-handed sword really was just that, a one-handed sword. It was an underrated piece of craftsmanship courtesy of the team that had dedicated their lives to Shadow researches inside Kirijo Group. In fact, the Kirijo Group made everyone's weapon in SEES. The fact that they had to retrieve them and at a police station inside Paulownian Mall, however, was a bit odd. The educated guess would be that Officer Kurosawa, head of said police station, was someone the Kirijo Group were in good terms with.

"And the gun?" She asked again while passing the sharpening stone and a sword care kit to the visitor.

"Evoker." He replied.

There was a slight pause after the answer, and then it hit her.

"Well, I suppose that makes sense." She nodded in understanding as she replaced one of the axe bit with a newer one. She then grabbed a piece of metal rod and arranged it to be an extension of the bat's already long handle. He could see where she was going with the supposed 'little upgrade' she mentioned earlier. "You know, it's not really required to name the weapon, but as we're going to be using them for the rest of our lives, might as well make it truly personalized."

It was a mere opinion, not totally intended to slip a witty name for his sword.

After he cleaned, filed, resharpened, and polished his sword as well as polishing the Evoker - though not to the shiniest of finishes – he asked Heather where he could find some leather, to which she just took a sheet from the inventory. He then quickly cut some parts out of it to the length of the blade of his sword and then borrowed a sewing machine to put them together. It came out as a sheath which looked miles better than the one he salvaged when he was still on the road. He threw the old one away then attached the new one. He then put the sword and the Evoker back to their respective housings, and his weapon maintenance session was done.

Meanwhile, Heather was close to finishing her maintenance, just had to fine-tune the mechanism a bit so the whole thing wouldn't jam during use. When she was done, she repeatedly tested the transformation before going for a swing with the new feature she just added to her weapon, a poleaxe mode. It's what the extra metal rod was for. When fully extended and held upright, it's quite a bit taller than her.

Some time had passed and sunset was imminent as they exited the institution. Before parting ways, she told her to keep a lookout and be careful in case there were White Fang members staying in the inn or simply hanging around the area. The agenda for tomorrow would be to stop Haven Academy from getting attacked. She said she would try coming up with a plan but he would be allowed some input if he could think of anything.

On his way back, Minato thought about searching the city to find Ruby Rose, as he finally had some time to himself. But even with the elevator system allowing for quicker travel through the levels, Mistral was huge in size from top to bottom. Fitting for the capital of a kingdom. Going through the whole city would take all night, and that didn't include going into the many points of interests around.

He felt the search was going nowhere and decided to stop for the night. He had dinner, then returned to the inn. He didn't immediately walked into his room as he chose to sit in the inn's lobby trying to spot some White Fang members. Heather told him that they all wear ivory white masks which would remind him of the Grimm. Some members had red markings on them. The higher the rank, the more prevalent they were.

She also gave him a photograph of the alleged new leader of the White Fang, Adam Taurus, because word had spread out that the plans of overthrowing the organization's old leader was actually a success. One more thing to add was that if the attack actually happened tomorrow night, Adam Taurus would be there. Their target was Haven Academy's CCT Towers. And if the Fall of Beacon was to go by, Mistral could lose its capability to provide communication with the outside world when the whole system was re-established, let alone inside its territory, if let be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make this chapter a bit longer, but I think that would be rushing the pace. So here's one containing a lot of exposition and no action. Hope it turned out well.
> 
> The original idea I had for this was having Minato captured by the Branwen Tribe, meet Weiss in captive (not necessarily sharing the same cell, however), and somehow convince Raven to let him go. Even after that I had two branching paths: One, letting him come with Weiss and Yang. Two, have him join Raven, Cinder, and co in the opposing side only to then join the good guys after the fight. Well, it's quite convoluted and I couldn't really figure it out so I scrapped it.
> 
> Next up, well, you know what's next. I also changed the title of this fic to what I believe is the best name I could think of. Might change again if I come up with another witty name.
> 
> Thank you for the support and I hope you guys enjoy this as usual. Also, stay safe!


	6. Attack on Haven Pt. 1

It was yet another nice day in Mistral and yet Minato couldn't shake the feeling that something big might be going down just after the sun. Fortunately, it wasn't something unfamiliar to him. Having prior experience of preparing for a fight in which the probability of winning was practically zero had swept all the worries away.

Difference was that he was practically alone. There was Heather but she was a family woman first and foremost and he wouldn't press her to actually come up with something despite the concerned yet determined look during yesterday's little tour of Haven Academy.

He was thinking of doing it all by himself, silently hoping Ruby Rose would be there whatever her intention was. Should the White Fang actually proceed, chances were they were to come in numbers just like their previous act in Beacon Academy. Stealth would have to be the only option to keep attention low for the sake of the citizens because causing just the slightest of unrest might attract Grimm to the area, as if the problems hadn't fallen on top of each other already. Telling the police about it was out of the question because there was no way they wouldn't believe someone who wasn't even a native of the world in addition to the lack of credentials to prove his trustworthiness.

It was about to change when Heather made a surprise visit to his room. They had a small chat over breakfast and then she told him to hold still as she took his photograph. Then he was told to write his full name on a piece of paper. She kept her eyes glued at her Scroll for a bit, then put it down. A few minutes later, she told him to check his Scroll.

"I have a friend who's good at these." As what appeared to be a Student License with his name and the photograph just taken earlier displayed itself on the screen. He was about to question the legality of it when she spoke again.

"It's just for a short while. Normally people don't really care as long as you're being helpful, but it'll help you get by if they're asking you to introduce yourself and wanted to know whether you could be trusted or not. I'm not saying it's a 'get out of jail for free' card, but as things stand, Huntsmen and Huntresses are considered the ones that run Remnant."

To drive the point home, she displayed her own Huntress License using her Scroll.

"I personally think it's a bit of a misconception. It's true that we're always in the front lines, either to kill Grimm or to stop any mischevious behavior but we owe it to the guys that made this job possible. The decision makers, the scientists, the engineers, the dust miners, the law enforcement personnel, the medical staff, all the like." She elaborated her point of view while putting the Scroll away.

"Some are in it for the money, some for the glory, some to just kick ass, some for the privileges, some for the adventure, some to help the defenseless, and some simply can't think of any other way to put food on the table." She continued. There wasn't an audible response from the bluenette as he gradually came to understand why the job was so revered despite the risks.

"I guess if I had to ask myself why I became a Huntress now...I'd say it's a bit of everything." She chuckled. "I didn't know why I'm doing this either back in my student days. I was a teenager too, you know."

The conversation died out. He wanted to relate but he came from a world in which Huntsmen and Huntresses didn't exist. He didn't slay Shadows for any other purpose than eradicating the Dark Hour and stopping the world from ending itself.

"By the way, why did you choose to...well, become so prolific?" The minutes tick by and the sky had completely gone dark when she came up with this question.

Telling the whole story would take time that honestly they didn't have, so he would have to settle with the short explanation devoid of names and terms and whatnot.

"I didn't think about it much..." He paused. "But then I realized my life's become more colorful than ever so I was willing to put my life on the line...for those colors mean everything to me."

The Huntress seemed to be taken aback by the way the bluenette standing beside her articulated it.

"Vague, but I'll take that." She nodded in approval while playfully punching his forearm. "Also, that's the first time you talk that much."

"I'm not much of a talker..."

"I can see that... The 'speak when spoken to' and 'speak when it's necessary' type."

It wasn't that hard to figure out.

"Anyway, it's nice to know a bit about yourself." She decided to end the visit and walked towards the door of his room. Without offering, he walked her all the way outside. "Expect me to call around sunset or so. See you!"

With that, he had all the time between the rest of the morning until sunset for himself. And yet, with the possibility of something major happening at night, he decided it was best to not go anywhere. Even if he wanted to roam around, he'd rather not go far just so he wouldn't be tired when the call came.

Therefore, he decided to just hang around in the inn's lobby while reading a collection of books found in a bookshelf near the reception desk. The receptionist told him that guests were allowed to bring the books to their rooms so long as he signed the checkout letter, and so he did. There was a huge archives in Haven Academy but if it's just to learn the basics about Remnant going to the top of the mountain wouldn't be necessary. He didn't pick the biggest, most prestigious place to stay in the first place but it was quite nice to have the inn situated close to a point of interest in the Market District.

Speaking of the Market District, he did see some peculiar-looking individuals coming and going. One was a blonde guy much taller than him wearing a black hoodie with the face of a cartoon rabbit printed on it. He was accompanied by another guy wearing green custom martial arts outfit with long, black hair that had a tinge of pink dyed to a small part of it. The third person in the party was an orange-haired girl, wearing navy blue cropped jacket with pink shirt and skirt underneath. He observed that the latter two seemed to be close almost in the same manner as a romantic couple, though it seemed to be more of a playful facade.

The books he read did give him more information about the Grimm. First, was that they could grow with age, and it would never cease. Along with the growth in size came the growth in the level of intelligence. Though it was stated to be unclear as to how intelligent they could become, it was clear that they typically gained just enough to enable adaptation towards the surroundings.

One more piece of history which piqued his interest was the Great War, Remnant's version of the World War. It stemmed from something which he thought would be frowned upon by many if it was to happen in his own world, an abolishment of arts and repression of human emotion. However, currently reading about the timeline of an event spanning ten years was a man who came from a world in which Grimm didn't exist. He only skimmed through the battles and focused on its resolution: a treaty upon which Remnant had since been built on.

Territory redistribution, abolishment of slavery, equal rights among Humans and Faunus, establishment of Huntsman academies, were the major points. The CCT Towers were developed and shared across the world in order for all four kingdoms - Vale, Vacuo, Mantle, and Mistral - to stay connected to each other. One of them had been lost, and the same party responsible for it were plotting to collapse another, essentially removing half of Remnant from the equation.

They even gave birth to a grand event to commemorate the end of the war, called the Vytal Festival. Its centerpiece, despite its general purpose as a worldwide cultural exchange, was a fighting tournament in which students from all four Huntsman academies were eligible to compete in. It didn't take much browsing to find some footages, the latest ones being uploaded only a couple of years ago. Watching the tournament fights brought him back to that one time he participated in a kendo tournament.

Difference was that unlike in the kendo tournament, everyone here wielded their working weapons; blades, bludgeons, firearms and all. It's true that anything could be lethal if wielded correctly, even plastic cutlery, but the weapons brandished by these vigilant competitors were the same ones which in the wrong hands could be used to mow down people instead of Grimm. If it wasn't for the combatants having a defensive mechanism displayed as what essentially was video game-inspired health bars to tell how much they could take without causing serious harm, the whole premise would have been different down to the core.

Meanwhile he couldn't help but wonder whether he also had the same defensive mechanism in place. Personas granted its users innate resistance to a multitude of things, all of which were considered lethal. And yet, as he got up after the supposedly life-ending impact back when he fought a couple of nasty Grimm alongside Heather, he truly didn't feel like he suffered serious injuries. There was soreness and slight discomfort after landing inside the house but not much else. No broken bones, no bleeding, nothing.

Time went by. When it was lunchtime he went down to get something other than noodles then back into his room. He was laying down on his bed, just finished with the last book when his Scroll rang. The holographic screen displayed an incoming call from the first person he got acquainted with in all of Remnant.

_"Are you free?"_

By the time she called, it was sunset. Truly books were one of his more prominent time-wasters, though not necessarily his favorite.

"Yeah..."

_"Good. Let's meet up. I'll send you the address. Oh, and, bring your weapons."_

"Alright. See you there."

The address she gave was a hotel located on the top level of the city, in the same neighborhood as Haven Academy. It was one of those luxury hotels with everything seemingly available while also aimed to sell the view it offered when guests looked out the window at the same time. For all intents and purposes, he didn't think she would actually go that far.

When he looked out the window of the room she had booked, he understood why that particular hotel was chosen. One of the CCT Towers, despite being partly blocked by trees, was visible.

"Figured I'd rent a room for the night and do a stakeout from here." She handed him a pair of binoculars.

He wanted to ask whether her family knew about this, but it was none of his business, and he really wasn't one to judge. She was fully committed to it and to respect that he just went along while secretly hoping nothing would happen to her. He did blink twice in her direction as a response.

"I did say that Haven might be in danger and I'm going to help on guard duty for the night due to staff shortage..."

He sighed, not knowing what to make of it. He grabbed the binoculars and looked through, zeroing the scopes on Haven Academy just up the mountain. Apparently there was a reason why she had picked that hotel, and that particular room to do the stakeout. The door to the elevator system could be seen from another window.

"Since we know that they're going after the CCT Towers-"

Suddenly there was an incoming call on her Scroll. She picked it up but since it was a holographic screen the caller's identity could be seen from the back. It turned out to be the head of Mistral Police, who she knew well.

"Sorry, gotta pick this up." She pointed at the Scroll before stepping to the other side of the room to get some privacy. "Hey, chief, what's the matter?"

He watched the look on her face before going back into looking at Haven through the binoculars again. It would be rude to listen in to the conversation but she wasn't far enough out of earshot for her voice to not be overheard.

"The chieftain is here?"

If by chieftain she meant Ghira Belladonna, then something must be happening. The public statement Minato watched did touch on having the swiftest of the chieftain's messenger being sent to the Mistral council to inform their findings.

"Well, yeah, I'm kinda free right now..."

She looked at the bluenette before focusing on the call again. From the changing look on her face, whatever she just heard could be important.

"Oh, wow. That's an amazing news. I'll be there."

She hung up then sighed before reaching for her weapon laid on the table. She grabbed a cup of coffee and a small piece of snack before walking up to him, still looking out the window.

"Can you keep a lookout on your own?" She put down the cup of coffee and munched on the food. Her gaze was fixated at the boy with the binoculars before looking back out the window. Surveillance wasn't really his strongest suit but there's always a chance to improve on that. Without waiting for his response, she spoke again. "I'm going to the police station to meet up with the chieftain. Looks like we got some extra help."

That was indeed an amazing news. On the other hand he couldn't help but think something might've happened in Menagerie that changed the people's minds because during the public statement they seemed hesitant about the idea of coming all the way to another land to protect an establishment not many of them had the connection to.

"Keep me posted... Don't do anything unless I tell you to, as much as I'd like to think you can just pick them off." She tapped his shoulder before walking out the door. "Oh, and, make yourself at home!"

A weird farewell indeed. He turned around, walked to the table and grabbed a donut before sitting down while still looking out the window.

A message from her came in shortly after. Attached to it was a detailed map of Haven Academy. He put the Scroll down on the table and viewed the attachment through perhaps one of the communicator's most practical feature, the ability to project its screen at an expanded size onto thin air. The part where he could just play video games without the need for another screen was all well and good but the self-projection ability was still something of a pipe dream back in his world. Scattered on some parts of the map were markings, possibly from her. It even had a footnote, which said "If I were to sneak into Haven I'd do it from these spots".

Unsurprisingly enough, the main gate wasn't marked, because it wouldn't be sneaking in if they could just go through the front. Some parts of the surrounding forest were, along with a path near one of the academy's airship landing pads. Despite having multiple entry points through the forest it was to be understood that the terrain was rough because some them were near huge drops.

As he turned his head to the other window overlooking the elevator door, it opened. Then emerged eight people, wearing an assortment of outfits that would, like he did, make them stand out among the locals. They appeared to be armed, evident from the compressed and sheathed form of some of the weapons. Among them were three people bearing the same characteristics as the ones he saw in the Market District the same morning. He watched as they went through the main entrance and disappear into the complex.

The one that caught his eyes was the girl wearing a red cape that had its hood down. Elizabeth told him it was one of the key characteristics of Ruby Rose. Therefore, it made him speculate that she was indeed the girl.

Other than that, none of them appeared to be members of the White Fang, considering the absence of animal-like characteristics, the lack of uniform, and ivory white masks.

Heather had strictly instructed him to not do anything. Therefore, he stayed put. If they were indeed arriving to help stop the attack, then everything should be fine.

Except it appeared to not be so.

Not too long after, he saw two airships approaching and descending into the learning institution. As they didn't have any doors, the passengers on board could be seen with the naked eye. Pulling out the binoculars, he managed to spot their characteristics, wearing uniforms and most importantly, ivory white masks. In one of the ships was the wanted man himself wearing an outfit quite distinguishable from his peers, Adam Taurus.

The airship with the new White Fang leader on board disappeared into the forest while the other hovered around the perimeter before stopping just above the main gate. Ropes were seen out from one side of the door, followed by guards dropping in. It didn't stop there. The airship moved again and repeated the same routine, this time near the elevator door. A good chunk of them were seen strutting into the direction of the hotel before they disappeared from his view.

The attack was actually going to happen, and the eight people he saw earlier had most likely walked into a trap. In any case, he immediately took his Scroll out and called Heather while lowering the binoculars.

_"Talk to me, Minato."_

"They're here."

He didn't hear her voice on the other end as soon as the information had been relayed. Although ramblings were audible. Perhaps she was telling them about it. Not long after, she continued with the call.

_"Are they guarding the elevator door and the academy entrance?"_

"Yeah."

_"What else do you see?"_

Now it's his time to pause as he looked through the binoculars. Aside from the guards, he saw the CCT Tower in view being climbed on. Because of what he had been told about them the other day, it wasn't that hard to figure out what the White Fang were attempting as he zoomed in on the guys scaling up the high-rise building.

"They're rigging the CCT Towers."

And then, another pause. The call was still ongoing but from the voices coming from the other end, it looked like the piece of information was being discussed.

_"We have someone who can disable those bombs. Can you take out the guards first? We're bringing up a lot of people and we can't afford to lose the element of surprise by getting into combat along the way. We'll be waiting for your signal but make it quick. They might blow it up anytime now."_

"On it."

_"Counting on you, suicidal summoner!"_

His ears slightly perked up at the nickname as the call ended. He supposed she had a point. Anyway, it was time for action. He got up and exited the room. Instead of taking the elevator, he took the fire exit and got down through the hotel's emergency staircase.

As he finally reach the base of the staircase he saw that the fire exit door which provided access to the lobby was closed. He decided he wasn't going to risk it and just barge in therefore he quickly got to the upper floor while carefully keeping his footsteps light so nobody could potentially hear him.

The fire exit was placed beside a group of three elevators. He pressed the up buttons and all three elevators arrived though not at the same time. He got into one that arrived first then pressed the button of an even higher floor at random and the lobby floor, in that order. He got out and let the door close, then repeated the same process on the other two while keeping the upper floor destinations in close proximity. He spotted another group of three elevators down the hallway. He quickly ran towards them and did the same thing.

After that, it was time to get back down and proceeded with the plan he thought out on the fly. He summoned Zouchouten and placed it just by the big red door. He opened the other one leading outside and waited behind the wall, all the while peeking in to see the Persona readying itself. When he was ready, it instinctively kicked the door open, knocking down two White Fang members guarding it from the other side. He dispelled it in a flash as the two guards got up.

They went through the fire exit and checked the stairs. As he saw their feet got up the first step, it was his cue. He appeared in a flash from the other fire exit. He put his foot through the back of the first guy's knee and applied an electrically charged fist to the other's lower back. With the two momentarily paralyzed, he worked on the first guy who tried to whip the shotgun backwards only for him to catch it with one hand and break the elbow with his other hand. He grabbed the guy by the top of his head which had fox ears, and quickly slammed the face as hard as possible into the stairs' handle rail. A violent stomp to the back of the head, planting the face to the rail again, became the knockout blow.

The second guy had turned around to face the attacker but was still quite uncoordinated in his movements. Minato wasn't going to let him recover, swiftly grabbing the masked man's collar and dragged him to the fire exit leading outside. He then slammed the red door to the poor bastard's face, and then smashed his dropped rifle to the same spot with enough force to break it in half and also cracked the mask.

The two guards were left unresponsive and no others had reacted, much to his relief. He opened the fire exit leading to the lobby carefully, trying to make as little sound as possible. Soon as his head peeked through, he saw a scared hotel employee looking towards him. Their gazes met, and he soon put an index finger in front of his mouth, making a faint shushing noise. The hotel employee complied, ducked, and went to hide behind the restaurant's bar as he slowly crawled into the lobby.

Three guards were placed in front of each group of three elevators with two in the middle of the lobby. While also hiding behind the bar, he could see that the guests and employees around had been told to get down before he showed up, with a few of them injured.

He peeked over and saw one of the elevators was about to arrive. He quickly took out his Evoker and with the scared employee looking, placed it against his head. He had to take guards out quickly, and he only had one shot. One of the Personas suited for the job was on the ready, setting in the forefront of his mind. He waited, waited, and waited. Seconds felt like hours in anticipation.

As the first ding was heard in the relative silence of the hotel lobby, the guards turned towards the source. The door opened, and they saw nothing. Then the second elevator arrived with the same ding, nothing again when opened. They instinctively stood in front of the third elevator as it arrived. As it began to open, it was his's cue.

"Mothman..."

He whispered the name of the Persona selected, one that had a multi-target electricity spell but not huge in size, also not eldritch in appearance. It appeared just beside the bar, and zapped the three guards looking into the third empty elevator in a row into unconsciousness.

"Who's there!?"

In response, everyone gasped, screamed, yelp, due to the surprise lightning strike while the remaining guards became alerted, especially two in the middle. He hadn't dispelled Mothman as it jumped into hiding alongside its user. Gunfire was heard as one of the guards fired into the ceiling.

"Show yourself!"

Complying wasn't part of the plan so he stayed hidden as another elevator ding was heard. The remaining guards reacted, turning towards the source of the sound. There was nothing. Same with the second one. The two guards seemed to think whoever trying to pick them off was going to make a grand entrance from the final elevator and therfore joined their comrades with their weapons at the ready. It only made things easier for him as Mothman jumped back out and its user poked his head out of the cover. As the guards looked into the empty elevator, they got struck by the same lightning that had taken their peers out earlier. One of the guards seemed to have survived, only to collapse into the elevator.

He came out of hiding, knowing there was no more danger. He looked around, and checked up on a couple of the guests, a mother grasping her bleeding wound and her child sobbing. He didn't have time to examine the others, only that he knew more than one person was injured. He had to do something.

"Kikuri-Hime."

He summoned one Persona capable of healing in masses. It got to work as the injured became engulfed in balls of light, healing their wounds. Everyone got back up and looked around to see who took the White Fang members out. They were perplexed but at the same time relieved.

While the Persona was still at work, Minato thought it was best to talk to them. He also put a Persona in the forefront of his mind which had a soothing aura that could relax even the most uneasy. He wasn't one to speak publicly, addressing a huge crowd, part of what made him think he wasn't the "glorious leader of men" type despite being assigned leadership during SEES' Dark Hour outings. But who else was there to do it? After all, the lightning strikes from Mothman probably gave some of them more scare.

"Please remain calm. You're all safe." He began. "The White Fang are going to attack Haven Academy just up the road. They tried holding you hostage to make sure nobody got away."

Kikuri-Hime had finished healing the injured and they were starting to get back up. The Persona immediately dispelled as it gave a curt nod to the crowd. There were murmurs and snickers, everbody around him seemed to have a questions.

"Is it going to be like the Fall of Beacon all over again?" Asked one of the many still recovering from the attempted siege.

"Not if you help me to stop it." Minato replied.

"What can we do?" Asked the scared hotel employee.

"Could you please tell everybody to remain inside and don't panic?" Was his suggestion due to one key piece of information about the Grimm. Whether that was the right answer or not depended on everyone's cooperation.

"Yes! Certainly!" The hotel employee complied, no longer looking scared.

"But, who are you?" The hotel's security guard, dressed in an employee's uniform with extra protective gear and weapon that would indicate her occupation as a Huntress, in this case a bladed tonfa with a muzzle, approached him.

He thought it was really nice of Heather to get him the needed document even though he knew it was breaking the law. He took out his Scroll and displayed the Student License she had forged for him.

"A Huntsman in training? By yourself?" A receptionist was mildly shocked upon seeing the license. Perhaps there was an abnormality in finding a student working alone.

"More is on the way, Ma'am." He replied assertively. Hopefully the extra help Heather mentioned meant more Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"What about those White Fang goons?" One of the guests asked.

"We'll tie them up and wait for the authorities to come." The Huntress working as the security guard answered the question. She retracted the sharp blade into her weapon's main body and walked towards the elevators all the while barking out orders and instructing the employees to work together. "You, please help calm the guests, and get me some ropes. Tell everyone not to contact anybody yet. We don't want the whole city to panic and bring Grimm over here."

Everybody started cooperating and things were returning to normal with no negative energy in the air. With that, he walked towards the main entrance of the hotel. In any case, they all believed in him, much to his relief.

"Where are you going?" Asked the security Huntress.

"There's more outside." He turned his head back before continue walking towards the door.

"Be careful!" Somebody handed over some ropes to her

He tried his best to not make a sound as he stepped outside. Before he got down, he noted that the elevator door and the academy's main gate had four guards each. The former was the closest from the establishment and was actually in sight.

He tiptoed behind some decorative bushes, and when close enough, summoned Mothman again and fried the guards to crisp.

He would have to walk a bit to reach the main gate. Fortunately, there were buildings along the way and he used them as cover to get closer. Again, the guards got the same treatment once he was close enough.

With all the hostility around the area taken out, he jogged back to the hotel's main entrance and called Heather to report the status.

"All clear."

_"How about the CCT Towers?"_

He took out the binoculars to have a look before answering the question.

"Still in one piece."

_"Thank goodness... Alright, we're coming up right now. Wait for us at the elevator door."_

Putting the Scroll into his pocket, he jogged to the elevator door and stood there. It wasn't long for the extra help to arrive. Leading the way was Heather, followed by three Faunus.

The first was a petite, fairly dark-skinned girl with darker spots on parts of her body and face, wearing a similarly dark-colored skinsuit and had her brown hair tied to a simple ponytail with its end twirling upwards. The other girl had long, black hair with matching car ears, wearing a white tailcoat with a black crop top with cutouts around the collar within, exposing her belly. Thigh-high boots with a crest which looked to have been personalized completed her look. They were accompanied by a guy with spiky blonde hair wearing an open white jacket which displayed his muscular physique, red bracers over black fingerless gloves and rolled up light blue cargo pants along with black and yellow sneakers.

"Well I did say make it quick..." Heather took the binoculars from Minato's hands and looked to see the way had been cleared and the guards all laid on the ground just as instructed. "I'm guessing you also did that." She quipped when they strutted past the hotel and saw the White Fang members he had taken out being tied to the lobby's structural pillars.

He made no comment as they arrived to at the main gate. The others put away the sprawled guards while she introduced the three Faunus.

"Minato, these are Ilia, Blake, and Sun." Following them were a large group of Faunus armed with staff and shield, along with the chieftain himself. "Blake here is the chieftain's daughter who has a history with Adam Taurus, or so I've been told." Heather added again. Blake approached the bluenette after the remark.

"Is he here too?"

Minato nodded. Heather just said it a few seconds ago but from Blake's determined gaze and slightly furrowed eyebrows he could feel just how important the wanted man was for the cat Faunus.

"Alright, the five of us will lead the way and take out the remaining guards inside." Heather reiterated the plan to the teenage Faunus while also briefly explaining it to Minato. "Then we get to our positions, wait for Ilia to finish disarming the bombs as Blake takes the point. Anybody wants to say anything?" She finished with the question. Blake quickly answered.

"If you have to fight Adam, don't ever clash with his sword. His Semblance allows him to return the absorbed blows back to you. Also, don't fall for his taunting."

It seemed to be directed towards Heather and Minato, who quickly acknowledged. New term for the bluenette aside, it was going to be a challenge for everyone. With the ability in mind, he made it a mental note to not brandish his sword should he and the wanted man engage into combat. Still, it's not like he wouldn't set up a Persona that could counter the ability. He just wanted to be sure, all the while not giving the enemy any advantageous knowledge about himself.

As they entered the academy grounds, he hoped the eight people he saw walking in earlier were okay while also hoping the girl with the red hooded cape was indeed Ruby Rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make this a lot longer than it should be, wrapping up the event in one chapter but I figure this would be the best stopping point because there are some key moments I may or may not insert into subsequent chapters. Also, there's a lot more to cover than I originally thought so I decided to just divide them into smaller blocks first.
> 
> I'd like to hear from you who consider yourselves well-educated on the world of RWBY and its fanfiction about the weapons. They seem to be one of the series' cornerstones based on my own observation. For example, if I'm to make a original character, are there weapon rules that I should follow? Can the weapons be anything within imagination? Are each characters only allowed one weapon with up to four different modes? I have something in mind laid out but I need to know what's allowed and what's not allowed first. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thank you for the support and feel free to drop your own comments! Stay safe and stay vigilant!


	7. Attack on Haven Pt. 2

"If you have to fight Adam, don't ever clash with his sword. His Semblance allows him to return the absorbed blows back to you. Also, don't fall for his taunting."

The information was received kindly by Heather and Minato. In the latter's case, it sounded similar to the ability of some of his Personas to repel attacks, except that they did so like a mirror reflecting light. The absorb part was similar to draining, but if he was to assume, storing the energy without releasing it didn't come with the added boon of healing, meaning it was most likely a counter-offensive measure with an extra degree of control added.

"That's easier said than done. Weapons clash all the time in combat." Heather pointed out, seemingly disagreeing with his earlier mental note of staying well away from Adam Taurus' blade.

"I know... Just, be careful. With enough energy it can kill you with one swing. Your Aura won't be able to protect you!"

Blake turned sombre. It wasn't hard to note something must've happened that had to do with Adam's Semblance for her to be able to describe its lethality, if what precious little Minato had learned about Aura so far was to go by. In regards to Semblances, the one assumption immediately jumping into his mind was that there was an assortment of them and that they were unique.

Heather reacted to this by calming Blake down, putting her hand on her shoulder. Once Blake had settled, Heather moved on to the next question. "Anything else we should know? Can we tell if he's using it?"

If there was one thing Minato picked up about Heather was that she knew what questions to ask in critical situations. Not to say he wouldn't have done the same but more often than not Fuuka, SEES' intelligence gatherer, came up with the answers before everyone could fire the questions. It was nice to have someone who personally knew the enemy, but such luxury wouldn't come so frequently.

"His sword glows when he absorbs the energy and releases it." Blake answered.

"I see." Heather comprehended. She wanted to ask more, but considering the time it was enough. "Then we'll have to keep an eye on it."

Minato nodded in agreement. It sounded like a tell which could become second nature to spot the more frequently they saw it.

"We'll take care of him for you, Blake." Sun gave Blake more reassurance. He walked until he stood beside Minato who was only slightly shorter than him.

When compared side-by-side difference in physique between Minato and Sun was clear. After his previous adventure, Minato couldn't help but notice the improvement in fitness and physical appearance but compared to Sun he looked rather pedestrian. Perhaps it was partly due to the fact that he was wearing clothing generally not suited for combat compared to the three teenage Faunus or even Heather.

"Or should I remind you that we're totally not here for him again?" Sun continued in a slightly more serious tone. Now that Minato knew someone amongst them had history with Adam Taurus, he thought Sun was just trying to make sure Blake didn't make it personal, at least for the time being. When someone can unsettle somebody that much just by hearing the name spoken, it might have been more serious that first assumed.

"I was just sharing what I know to Heather and Minato..." Blake deadpanned momentarily, then sighed before smiling at Sun as a form of appreciation for his reprimanding. "But thanks."

Sun returned the smile, then turned to Minato, stretching his right hand out. His smile turned to a small grin. "Full name's Sun Wukong, by the way. Nice to meet ya!"

Things really seemed to be different apart from the food and time system. None of the history in Remnant matched that of Minato's old world. Case in point, the guy who shared the same name as the notorious monkey from a famous work which had been adapted multiple times in media and accepted into popular culture. He wondered how Sun would react if he witnessed the summoning of a Persona version of him, Seiten Taisei.

"Minato Arisato." Minato pulled his right hand out, and with a faint smile on his face, shook Sun's. After shaking hands, he retracted his hand and put it back in the pocket. "...Likewise."

While waiting for the whole militia to get ready as they put aside the White Fang members Minato had downed, he caught Blake gazing at him, especially onto his waist where the Evoker was located.

"What's wrong?" Minato glanced at the silver gun, touched it with his left hand, and then looked at Blake.

"You...remind me of someone." Blake remarked. Minato raised his one exposed eyebrow in response. She wanted to say more but looked like it would have to wait. "...Never mind."

While Elizabeth did say she met Akihiko, Mitsuru, Aigis, and Ruby Rose's group, both encounters took place in separate time and place. She wasn't there to witness their meeting, that's if they actually did run into each other. Although, the way Blake eyeballed the Evoker was quite telling. Could they have actually met? Could she be one of the four girls besides Ruby? The signs were there but he would like to keep an open mind for the time being.

"Oh yeah..." Heather almost forgot something and she approached Minato for it, knocking him off his pondering. "How did they get here? You didn't say anything about it on the call."

Much to Minato's realization, he didn't. In response, he pulled out his Scroll and displayed the same map she sent him, directing his index finger at one of the marked entry points. "A couple of airships parked here." He stated.

"Alright." Heather nodded. She too grabbed her Scroll and made a brief call without stepping away, allowing him to overhear her part of the conversation again. "Chief, they may have airships at the landing pad."

The call was brief but she wasn't done yet as she called another number, to which there was no response. He figured he shouldn't have withheld information in the first place. Therefore, he decided to come out with the information of a potentially key sighting before it's too late to do so.

"I saw eight people entering before the White Fang got here." Minato spoke up. It got Heather's attention.

"How long before?"

"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes before they arrived." He looked at his watch before determining the timeframe.

"Do you know who they are?" She asked but then quickly realized what the answer might be, so a rephrase in question was needed. "I mean, what can you tell about them?"

"They could be Huntsmen and Huntresses." He answered based on two characteristics: peculiar clothing, sheathed and compressed weapons.

"I see... They probably don't know the White Fang are coming, and might've walked into a trap." She was quick to come to the same conclusion he did. "Let's hope they can hold their own until we find them." She finished.

As she put her Scroll away, the chieftain gave her the thumbs up as they were finished with the preparations, lining up with shield and staff on. In response, the five brave warriors leading the way consisting of two Humans and three Faunus huddled up again.

"Comms on." Heather handed over an earpiece to each of the teenagers. She then pointed onto her own, which then followed by them putting theirs on.

_"We've tried contacting Lionheart but there was no response, me and the police both."_ They were together but for some reason Heather spoke through the earpiece. Whatever the intention, the device was working.

_"Really? That's unusual of him..."_ Sun cut in, also through the earpiece. For him to know about that, Minato could only deduce Sun was most likely a student of the academy.

"Sun, we're right here. You don't need to use the comms." Blake deadpanned to Sun's face.

"Just checking to see of this works." Sun quipped, touching his earpiece with his index finger. "Never get to use one of these before..."

"At least I know they actually work." Heather chuckled, and nodded in Sun's direction. Then she continued on briefing. "Once inside, if you have time, check the buildings. There might be people trapped, injured, or taken hostage inside, including possibly Lionheart."

"Understood." The teenagers replied in unison.

With the answer, Heather concluded the briefing. She touched her earpiece again while looking at the militia standing behind them.

"All set, Chieftain Belladonna?"

The group of five watched the chieftain touch the communicating device on his ear, responding to the enquiry.

_"All set, Mrs. Shields."_

"Then let's go."

They spread out as soon as they stepped into the school grounds. Blake, Ilia, and Sun took to the roof and trees, taking advantage of their acrobatic skills while Heather and Minato kept it on the ground with the whole militia.

Even as Heather had picked the safest route possible leading to the CCT Towers, there were still White Fang members patrolling. As she spotted a couple of them, she signalled everybody to stop and get to cover, be it behind plantation or buildings. Stealth was of the essence, they had to take the guards out quickly without making too much noise. Therefore, summoning was out of the question for Minato as the pull of the trigger of his Evoker would actually be mistaken for a gun going off. He could instead rely on his newfound abilities.

Out of all the elements he could use, electricity had been his favourite so far. He only needed to focus, and his hands were immediately imbued with electric current in order to create the same effect inflicted by stun guns.

He swiftly tiptoed around with Heather standing by as the two guards got closer to their position, behind the corner of one of the buildings. The guards' reaction was basically nonexistent as Minato zapped them both, shooting powerful electrical charge out of both of his hands. Though powerful it wasn't intended to send them flying but to simply put them in a temporary state of paralysis. Heather who just witnessed the quick takedown came out of hiding and dragged one of the guards to her direction as Minato did the same.

Heather turned them on their bellies, joined one of the guard's hands together on their back and made sure it stayed that way with a zip tie. After repeating the same process on the other guard, Minato signalled everybody to come out of hiding with the glance of his head.

Minato only had two hands. Therefore as he tried repeating the same feat from earlier on three guards, Heather used her weapon to strangle and drag one of them away. She showed that in combat situations in which life and death could be decided within a blink of an eye, there was no such thing as fighting fairly by striking the guard in the nether parts with one upswinging motion after thrusting her weapon, currently in bat mode, onto the guard's windpipe. The recipient of the unfortunate combo, with his completely crushed manhood, immediately fell unconscious.

Meanwhile Minato's electric projectiles only worked to perfection on one of the guards, evident by the limp figure on the ground. The other guard fought back, though not fully coordinated, aiming to whip his sub-machine gun onto Minato's chin. The weapon was caught with both hands, then jerked back to meet the face of the attacker with some force. The guard lost grip of the weapon to try clutching onto his opponent but even he wasn't allowed to do that as he received a knee onto his face, and then had it kicked upwards which knocked him unconscious.

Heather didn't waste time cuffing while also checking at Minato who just finished tying up the first guard's hands. She threw another zip tie at him and with a flick of her hand signalled the militia to come out of hiding again. Some of them frowned and grimaced at the guard she took out, and then at her, perhaps due to her way of neutralizing.

Minato caught the diagonal swing of a machete-wielding White Fang member, then grasped his face while putting his right foot forward, hooking it onto the back of the guard's foot. He simultaneously applied energy to drag his hooking foot back towards him and leaned forward to transfer all of his weight to the grabbing hand, causing the guard to lose footing and brought down with the back of his head planted onto the ground. The guard clutched the back of his head, rolled on the ground, and then turned around to be restrained.

Minato instinctively ducked underneath another guard to miss a machete aimed to chop his head off then used his back and the assailant's momentum to hurdle the assailant over and onto the trajectory of Heather's bat swing, sending the poor bastard into the air before landing on the ground out cold. A combination born out of pure on-the-fly instincts but looked premeditated. Although it wasn't exactly an unfamiliar manoeuvre on his part as he used to do similar parrying techniques to set up Shadows to be finished off by his friends.

Heather smirked at Minato due to how satisfying it felt as she turned the out cold guard around and restrained him.

Those were the last of the guards in their way as the CCT Towers were in sight. The buildings they walked by along the way and those around the route they chose were all locked, even as some of them had lights on inside. Heather had coordinated for some members of the militia to help check for hostages but commanded them to leave locked doors be fearing it might attract unwanted attention.

Fortunately, there were no hostages. Minato concluded that the guards they ran into weren't exactly looking after the buildings instead more like just watching over areas. With that, they decided to stop and Heather checked in on the other guys.

"We're clear. Report in."

Sun was the first to respond, followed by Blake. Ilia wasn't responding.

_"All clear! There's nobody around but White Fang soldiers. The buildings are all locked. No hostages, no injuries!"_

_"Same here. Ilia is disarming the explosives at the first tower."_

"Good." Heather nodded. To hear that Ilia was already working on disarming the bombs put her at ease. Although it was to be expected that those taking it upstairs would get around quicker than the ones downstairs. At the moment, they had no time to waste. It was time to proceed to the next phase. "Blake, you're free to take the point anytime."

_"Got it."_

Heather looked back to the group of Faunus standing by, and then decided the numbers needed to be split up. For that, he contacted Sun as she assumed Blake was keeping watch of Ilia.

"Sun, take some of the militia with you. We're in a small opening near one of the classroom buildings. We need to flank them from multiple sides. Are you nearby?"

_"I'll be there in a heartbeat."_

Sun answered in a flash and surely enough, it didn't take long for him to arrive and group up with them. With the chieftain's instruction, roughly half of the militia followed Sun back to the direction he came from.

_"I'm done with the first tower. Disarming explosives on the second one."_

Ilia reported her progress, which was responded in kind by Heather.

"Careful. Don't get spotted." She warned.

With Sun's party disappearing into the woods, they walked slowly to the direction of Haven's main square, which was surrounded by the CCT Towers, the Great Hall, and another building. Minato then spotted Blake climbing to the yet unnamed building. Heather too noticed this, and came up with an idea.

"Do you know how to pick a lock?"

A strange question out of nowhere from the Huntress to the not Huntsman student. He shook his head in response. He never had to break into anything in his life, if barging into Tartarus on Mitsuru's motorcycle didn't count.

That night he was supposed to participate in breaking into school to find Fuuka who accidentally entered Tartarus during the Dark Hour after being locked in the school's sports equipment storage room. But then he was told to stay at the dorm to keep an eye on Fuuka's then bully, Natsuki. When he realized she had ran off when he wasn't looking and then reminded of the harrowing possibility of losing everyone due to his inactiveness, something in him awakened, driving him to utilize the powers he had been obtaining to avert the catastrophe. He was grateful that Mitsuru left her motorcycle at the dorm. Under the Dark Hour skies, along with the bright green full moon, he raced to the towering monstrosity, weaving through the sight of transmogrified people and still traffic along the way.

"Wait here." Heather knocked Minato out of his stupor as she tiptoed to the locked door of the faculty and administration office. She took out a small pouch containing small pieces of metal and began fiddling with the door. Not too long after, she paused, then put the tools back. She quickly regrouped with them, breathing a sigh of relief for not getting spotted.

"Get in there, get a better view of the main square." She whispered. "I need to stay with Chieftain Belladonna. I've unlocked the door for you." She finished the instruction, to which he quickly nodded in affirmation.

_"I'm sending Minato to the classroom building overlooking the main square to go have a look at the scene."_

Heather relayed the situation update to everyone. The girls gave the affirmation while Sun responded by pointing out something.

_"There's a staircase near the entrance leading to the second floor where you can get a nice view outside."_

The building was dark as the lights weren't on. He intended on keeping it that way to lower the possibility of attracting attention. He put his Scroll out, activated its flashlight and traced the floor to find the staircase in question. Once he spotted it, he turned off the flashlight and walked up while expressing his gratitude for Sun's help.

"Found it. Thanks."

_"No problem, dude!"_

Part of Haven's Great Hall was visible through the window as he just arrived at the second floor. The main square outside was well lit. He leaned against the wall and carefully peeked through the window at the direction of one of the CCT Towers. He could see a cable on one of the planted explosives being removed yet he couldn't see anything else. As explained earlier that Ilia was in charge of disabling them, he deduced that she had some form of camouflage ability, allowing her to do it without worrying about getting spotted.

_"Minato, what do you see?"_

Heather called in, wanting some intelligence. For as many guards they encountered along the way, the numbers in and around the massive opening were quite thin. Currently standing out in the open were Adam Taurus and around twenty more henchmen.

"Only the White Fang." Was Minato's reply. The numbers didn't really matter anyway because he alone could remedy the issue if they proved to be at a disadvantage.

Heather was quick to ask the next question.

_"No hostages?"_

"No."

It could only mean the eight people he saw were in the hall across the main square as they weren't seen anywhere else. The lights inside the hall were on, and he could be right as he made out images of people through the decorative glass panels. Nothing seemed interesting as to the White Fang everything was going according to plan.

Until there was a loud crashing noise followed by a huge part of the hall's facade getting blown out.

_"What was that?"_ Ilia inquisitively asked, while disarming the last of the bombs.

"Somebody just crashed into the square through the Great Hall." Minato immediately reported based on what he just witnessed.

_"Who?"_ It was Heather's turn to quickly respond.

"I don't know." Minato replied as such because he didn't spot the guy amongst the airship passengers during stakeout. Perhaps he was at the helm as the cockpit had windows, for obvious reasons. Nor was the guy part of the eight people he saw entering the school grounds.

The new face was most likely an enemy, judging by the White Fang's lack of hostility when reacting to the happenstances behind them. One thing that Minato quickly noticed was what looked like crystals popping out of his arms, and they weren't part of his anatomy as he just inserted more. His roar echoed through the night sky. It reminded him of a form of injection but somehow much more horrific due to the way it was applied.

As they looked into the building in response, so was Minato. The massive opening of the Hall allowed him to get a better look. Some of them who were in view appeared to be the same people he spotted entering the academy through the main gate. More importantly, there seemed to be an armed conflict, with weapons being swung around and occasional shots fired.

_"All explosives have been disarmed."_ In the midst of all that, Ilia's part was done and she was standing by.

_"Great job, Ilia."_ Heather acknowledged the report.

"There's more people inside the hall." Minato slipped in the information at the last second as it was time to proceed.

_"Now let's bust these guys. Blake, we're ready when you are!"_ Heather gave Blake the green light. _"Minato, you're free to provide support when necessary."_ Along with that, Heather also gave Minato his new objective.

"Got it." Which he affirmed even though he would do it without even being told to anyway.

Minato leaned against the wall nearby the double doors leading to the balcony to avoid getting spotted as the White Fang members outside perked their heads to the direction of the building in front of them. He peeked outside as he heard Blake's voice coming from above, most likely because she was standing on the roof. He waited whether or not there would be combat once the militia surrounded them. Although, considering everybody was armed he would have to prepare for the eventuality.

And then everyone appeared from the woods and walkways. To say the White Fang hadn't predicted this from happening was quite an understatement, despite Minato's initial reservation. Some of them pointed their weapons at the militia in response but then lowered them due to realizing it's their kind and the last thing they needed was to inflict more casualties to themselves. Or perhaps because these men in uniform also had friends, relatives who happened to be participating in the counteractive effort.

Before Adam could even finish his next sentence, the next batch of party crashers came along from the background. The timing was perfect, convenient, in truth. The sight of three police airships appearing from the background brought a tinge of relief to the guy watching it all unfold from inside the building across the hall.

Minato could tell that the people outside really wanted this to happen no matter what, and he couldn't help but smirk when Adam found out the bombs didn't go off, followed by Ilia appearing from the shades and deactivating her camouflage ability, holding the some of the cables in her hand.

Realizing Adam was running out of options, he looked behind, to the man with crystals embedded into his arms cracking his knuckles. They had sparks of electricity, possibly due to the effect of whatever crystals he just injected into himself. What he could make out of the echoed voice was that he was not going to cooperate with the White Fang leader.

Shortly afterwards, Blake jumped off the roof and into the square, still trying to force Adam to surrender by the way of reason. It was all for nothing as he ran towards the girl, left hand grabbing the sheath and right hand tightly grasping the handle of his weapon, which was most likely a sword due to how it's packaged. It was quite indicative of the man's fighting style, one that emphasized on high awareness and quick, yet controlled instead of frantic, draws of the sword from its sheath.

Had it not been for Blake's ability to create a projection of herself, she would have been wounded from Adam's quickdraw attack. As the image he struck disappeared, she was beside him, countering the action by bashing him in the back of his head as he was going through his follow-up, sending him tumbling to the ground.

It turned out the White Fang would actually go as far as hurting their own kind, as Adam commanded them to kill the militia. Fortunately, whoever prepped them had taught them well and was kind enough to provide shields to accompany their staffs, as they were being used to form walls to get close before engaging once within touching distance. Sun and Ilia too jumped into combat, with Heather following from the back.

It was time Minato stepped in. The aim was to provide support. For that, he had the first Persona he worked rigorously to optimize compared to the prior ones before. It was part of Elizabeth's fusion challenges. In this instant it was to test out his proficiency as the fusions got more advanced. There was no real requirement set to complete it, just that he had to create it.

The real kicker was that it was one of the few Personas which could inherit just about anything. He could practically hand-pick the skills he wanted to pass down from the materials needed for the fusion. The caveat being it was only achievable through a cross spread - a fusion of four Personas - with no other alternatives both in method and fodder.

"Black Frost."

He then kicked the balcony's double door open as Black Frost got to work. It casted a defensive support spell which reduced the amount of damage taken, surrounding each individual considered as allies in a flash of light blue honeycomb as the sign of application. Next up, a spell which inflicted a temporary penalty on attack power, directed at Adam Taurus and his White Fang subordinates. Their whole person was momentarily highlighted in dark red as confirmation of the spell going to work.

Unlike to Persona-users, the application and removal of these support spells might not even be noticeable to untrained senses. Even so, SEES had Fuuka who was able to watch over these effects. At first, she could only do it when she was cocooned inside Lucia, later Juno - the initial and ultimate forms of her Persona respectively - but she eventually gained the ability to do so without having to summon. It also came as a shock at first to know that she could avoid Shadows from finding her and sensed people getting attacked when they first found her lost inside Tartarus. And that was before she was introduced to the Evoker the same night.

_"That's a big help, dude! Thanks."_

_"Is there anything you can't do, Minato?"_

_"Thanks."_

_"Thanks for the help!"_

Although, Minato supposed that Huntsmen, even those in training, had their senses sharpened, as they could feel the effect of the first spell. Sun quickly gave Minato the appreciation, Heather seemed to savour the display of his abilities, while Blake and Ilia also gave their own gratitude. To answer Heather's question, it would be reviving the dead. However, Minato kept it to himself as he didn't want everybody downstairs to lose focus.

Even after the support, it wasn't stopping the White Fang from keep swinging and shooting at the militia, comprised entirely of same kind as they were. Minato had to step in and provide another assistance. While keeping himself behind cover, he dispelled Black Frost, and summoned another Persona, one amongst many which had prowess over one element hadn't been used much so far, wind. There were many options but some looked downright horrific with one of them taking form of a dragon. He only considered one Persona fit for it, one that didn't need to be crazy powerful for the task in mind.

"Nigi Mitama!"

Nigi Mitama was also a much smaller target to hit than its user. Healing was actually its main job but it came with the added bonus of having wind spells which came in handy in the early days of the exploration whenever Yukari needed a little breather. In any case, it got to work on healing allies who were either injured or incapacitated.

The wind spells it had was enough to dish out small pillars of tornado that weren't lethal in their own right but more than enough to give people shock and sweep them off their feet. After all, if there was a takeaway from the Huntsman and Huntress students based on their Vytal Festival tournament footage, it was that they got to dish out ridiculous varieties of damage, all of which could injure, or even kill anybody on the receiving end, had it not been for those video game health bars. Perhaps there was more to it that met the eye. The current happenstances wouldn't allow him to think about it much, however.

He wasn't one to slaughter people, but he personally didn't mind inflicting pain to those who deserved it. It was just unfortunate that Jin dropped cooked grenades that immediately blew up in his face and Takaya got his hands severed by Junpei before got punched lights out by Akihiko.

While the wind spells kept the battle controllable, it also attracted hostile attention. White Fang members who realized it began either shooting at Minato or ran through the crowd and into the building he was in. Adam also aimed his gun, masked in the form of his sheath, towards the balcony. As expected from someone deemed to be dangerous, the shots were accurate and powerful enough to defeat Nigi Mitama as it disappeared as it got knocked back inside. Adam was finally interrupted from shooting as Heather got within touching distance and managed to land a hit on his chin. Her weapon was in its bat mode with the handle completely extended, making it look like a top-heavy staff.

Minato would jump down and help Heather if it wasn't for the sound of doors being barged open. Some White Fang soldiers were going to deal with him. He considered turning on the lights but decided not to, making sure it stayed dark. His experience in Tartarus, in which whole floors would occasionally turn pitch black, made him feel comfortable with the current situation.

He decided to hit them the moment they stepped in. For that, he would have to do it hard, and quickly, before they managed to turn the lights on. He cycled through his options before settling with the strategy of summoning melee-based Personas. With the pull of the trigger...

"Rakshasa!"

The condition was perfect for the mischievous personality from Hindu mythology, as it was the full moon. Despite that, he still needed to bump up the numbers.

"Neko Shogun!"

With the second pull of the trigger, he summoned the Persona based on a Chinese general, misnamed because its name sounded similar to the word for cat from its native language.

Rakshasa lead the way and ran down the stairs with both its swords out and quickly dispatched the first White Fang soldier in sight, who happened to be looking for a switch to turn the lights on. Neko Shogun and Minato followed closely behind.

Neko Shogun jumped over the guardrail and smacked the next one in sight clean with its fan before punching another. Rakshasa finished the former of the two with a powerful slice which the guard couldn't parry properly and another slash past the broken defence. Minato wound up dealing with the other guard, throwing his right fist twice in a straight trajectory towards the liver of its recipient while using his left arm to trap the head under his armpit. After the two body shots, Minato let go of the clinch, took a step with his left foot which reduced the distance between the two, and followed the motion with a left fist thrown with considerable force from his belly in an upward motion which clashed with the recipient's chin. Despite the darkness, the aim of the punch was true, as it knocked the wind out of the enemy.

It turned out there was yet another access into the building, as Rakshasa managed to intercept the next White Fang soldier's attempt to put Minato in serious danger. Minato responded in kind, taking over the guard Rakshasa had turned aside as it dealt with another guard running in with a sub-machine gun.

The response to the guard's overhead slice was a simple parry with Minato's bare hand, followed by trapping it in a clinch. There was a leg clash as Minato blocked an attempted kick by raising his leg, dissipating the energy with his thigh. The same blocking leg spiked downwards, putting as much energy as possible at the base of the feet onto the attacker's toes. The guard cried in agony, his trapped hand flailing, struggling to let go. His trapped hand was then let go only to be immediately grabbed by the wrist. The next thing the guard experienced was getting a knee landed on his chest, a few spins with the back of his uniform being grasped tightly, and ended with his whole person getting tossed through the glass window. Rakshasa and Neko Shogun sent the firearm-wielding guard flying through the same door he came from.

No more guards were seen entering the classroom building as Minato stepped out through the broken window, both Personas dispelled. Blake had run into the hall since he began dealing with White Fang soldiers trying to infiltrate his position and hadn't returned. Sun and Ilia were still busy helping the militia which left Heather and Adam locked together in combat.

Except Heather appeared to be in serious danger. She had been sent stumbling and was on her knees but looked eager to keep fighting. He spotted no injuries but she could sustain one any moment. As Minato ran to her aid, he saw it, Adam's special ability, earlier referred to as a Semblance. Everything tinted red in his whole person - hair, clothing, mask graphics - glowed as he wound up in that beloved quickdraw stance, left hand holding the scabbard and right hand gripping the sword's hilt with both legs open and slightly bent, to unleash the stored energy presumably from the clash of weapons.

Minato would never forgive himself if the first person he got acquainted with in all of Remnant was killed in front of his very eyes, just like how it had been when he was faced with the prospect of losing everybody to the clutches of death in his past life. In a split second, he planted his feet on the ground, bent his knees while simultaneously grabbed the hilt of his own sword, and pushed his feet against the ground with a multitude amount of force. It launched himself in a straight line directly into the path of Adam's red projectile shaped like a slashing motion with its base running along the ground. Minato pulled out his sword just in time to position it across the projectile, right hand gripping the hilt tight and left hand partially grasping the small pentagonal-shaped pommel to get even more leverage. Both slashes caught each other, as if the projectile was made out of a solid material.

It was enough to stop the released energy in its path and dissipated it. However, the block-slashing motion didn't stop. It instead was followed up all the way because of the force Minato had exerted. The whole motion came to a stop with him standing on both feet a couple of steps away from Heather with his right hand holding the handle and his left hand sliding free from the pommel, blade pointing away from the action.

A gust of wind with pressure so immense it was visible in the shape of the slashing motion emerged as a by-product. It flew at breakneck speed directly onto the direction of Adam, who barely managed to put his sword in front of it. As the supposed wind projectile and the sword made contact, the former displayed the same behaviour as air going through an aerodynamic plane. It split itself into two and then disappeared into the background. The sword didn't glow just like Blake had pointed out, meaning either Adam didn't activate his Semblance quick enough to respond while blocking, or it simply couldn't absorb energy from compressed air.

Heather's pupils were slightly dilated after the turn of events. Then she breathed a sigh of relief as Minato walked and kneeled beside her. She dropped her left hand, holding Hurricane Slugger on the ground while her right hand clutched her left forearm. He touched her shoulder, calming her even more despite the jagged breathing. The hand that still rested on her shoulder began glowing white, casting the exact same healing spell that cured her injuries when they first met. Her breathing began to stabilize, and she let go of the grip on her forearm, revealing a cut which was quickly remedied as Minato hovered his still glowing hand to it.

"Minato..." Heather gasped, still fatigued due to the fight despite having her injury healed. "Thank you..."

"Are you alright?" Minato nodded in response to the gratitude. He gazed at Adam after the inquiry.

"Yeah..." Heather nodded back at Minato. "I... I could use a breather." She continued with her head slightly perked up.

"Please do." Minato pulled his hand back, and then pushed it against his knee, allowing him to stand upright. He stepped forward and stood in front of Heather, sword in his right hand and his left hand in the pocket.

Even though Adam was wearing a mask, Minato could feel the gaze locked against his. Adam's right hand was still holding his sword, while his left hand had a loose grip of the scabbard placed on the hip.

"Taking her place as the sacrificial lamb? How kind of you." Adam mocked the sight of chivalry.

The White Fang had been resorting to more violent means to earn respect since the previous leader, Sienna Khan, came into power. However, it was unknown whether she sanctioned the previous attack which felled a Huntsman academy, rendered a city inhabitable, and shut down Remnant's inter-kingdom communication. As words came out that Sienna Khan had been usurped instead of killed by a Huntsman like what some claimed, it was likely that she wasn't the biggest advocate to the act to the point she downright condemned it.

"Just another human standing in the path of what's right for the Faunus." Adam stated. His hatred for humans was clear from those words alone.

"Including destroying this place, in which Faunus are also students?" Minato commented. He didn't know whether there was a clear cut answer if it was down to him but he didn't miss the sense of hypocrisy in Adam's words.

"Shut up! You don't know us! You don't know what we've been through!" Adam retorted.

Minato rolled his eyes at the victim card in play. But then again, he shouldn't be that cynical. He hadn't spoken to enough Faunus to know what they had experienced.

"I have a lot of followers and powerful friends. We also happen to be the dominant species on this planet." Adam's left hand stretched out in a showboating manner. Minato would have to fact-check the last sentence.

"More Faunus will see the light after I'm done here." Adam finished his sentence.

Minato looked around. The scenery was filled with fighting, more specifically, Faunus fighting each other. The militia coming all the way from another land against the White Fang.

"They don't seem to agree with you." Minato referred to the militia.

Adam laughed at the remark as he too looked around before facing Minato again.

"Menagerie is full of weaklings, quitters, those who just want to be left alone! They don't realize I'm also doing this for them. They don't realize that this is what's right for us!"

Minato stayed silent. This kind of talk wasn't his forte. All he knew was that there might be serious consequences down the road if the current threat couldn't be averted.

"Feel free to fight back when this is all over. Faunus from all over Remnant will unite if this plunges us to a war against you. And under my lead, we will make you bow down to us. We will win."

Minato sighed but pretty much accepted the way Adam had taken. Sometimes they just couldn't be reasoned anymore, in too deep in their own ideas. Plus, he wasn't one to give a hero's speech.

"Prove it." Minato raised his dullish gray double-edged sword, pointed it straight at Adam in realization that combat was the only way. He had no intention to knock some sense into his opponent, though. Only to stop the calamity from happening.

"That eager to die, huh?" Adam did the same gesture. Red, single-edged blade pointed to the bluenette.

Minato lowered his sword, then assumed his usual stance. Setting his right foot back, with his right hand taking the same alignment. He held the sword in a resting position, making it point downwards. His left foot became the leading foot with his left hand remaining free but kept close to his hip in case he would have to pull out the Evoker.

Adam sheathed his sword but kept grabbing the hilt with his right hand and the scabbard in the other, assuming the quickdraw position. His body leaned forward with his legs slightly bent.

"Death is a friend of mine." Dangerously provocative words came out of Minato's mouth in reply to Adam's taunt. What Adam didn't know was that those words were true.

"Then I'll take you to it on a one-way trip!" Adam welcomed the challenge as he charged forward, closing the distance between the two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters have been getting increasingly longer! I'm sorry for the wait. Things have been slowly returning to normal, or should I say, new normal. People are getting back to work and/or school though not on a daily basis. Restaurants are beginning to serve guests dining in with considerable amount of distance in between chairs and tables. Sports are back although without spectators on site. And the number of cases dropping, at least where I live. With that, I had to allocate my time to a bunch of other stuff before I get to work on this.
> 
> I draw the line here for this chapter because I still had some stuff to figure out for subsequent chapters. But I have the outlines laid out. I hope this chapter turned out well, despite the cliffhanger end. Next up, Minato fights Adam, and maybe more.
> 
> I'd like to thank the support and contribution so far. It's very encouraging to see. Please keep them coming.
> 
> I hope you all stay safe out there, whether you're indoor or outdoors!


	8. Attack on Haven Pt. 3

The moment just one speck of the red blade was visible, Minato took one step backwards with his right foot. His whole person followed through while keeping his left foot planted on the ground. Thin air was all that's left of the space previously occupied by his torso until Adam, with one horizontal motion of his sword, cut through it.

With a turn of the wrist, Adam's red blade pointed up to the night sky. He then brought it down, only for the intended target to disappear from his immediate vision. It was followed an upward slice after another turn of the wrist. Once again, the straight, single-edged blade missed its target.

The target in question was a safe distance away after the first string of attacks. No matter, though. A dash step put his target back within reach to begin his next string of attacks, but there was nobody home. Adam kept on the offensive as he constantly closed the distance but, still, the intended recipient was nowhere to be found.

With the explosives deactivated, Minato knew it would take a while for the White Fang to re-arm them, if at all. Therefore, he could afford a little time to size up his opponent. It felt like back in the beginnings of his adventure when everybody had figure out the Shadows' weaknesses by themselves as Mitsuru's Persona lacked the ability to detect enemy vulnerabilities.

"Come on, hit me! Are you just going to keep running away, just like everyone else?"

But that time was running out, so was Adam's patience. While Minato had been able to comfortably weave and step out of Adam's blade, they would both come across, eventually. He would have to react soon while the automatic buffs were still in effect, courtesy of a Persona chucked full of passives being set on the forefront of his mind while the pre-fight chat was taking place.

Heather was no longer hanging around the two of them, evident by the fact that she had disappeared from her resting spot just a few moments ago. This put Minato at ease. Friendly fire was no longer a risk while at the same time making Adam focus on him, and him alone.

Minato's brows slightly furrowed, while his legs kept him swerving here and there, getting him out of the path of Adam's sword. Real separation was all Minato needed to get hold of the Evoker and summon a Persona. A shove of the foot was returned with a shoulder barge, followed by the red sword flying at Minato. A kick to the heel disrupting Adam's balance was replied with the gun on his hip going off, and then another attempting to take the bluenette's head off, which flew past his bangs after a flick of the neck.

Any chance Minato would get to even beg for a little space so he could grab the silver gun and call upon just one of his many Personas, all denied with Adam getting ever so close to make him stand in the effective reach of the sword. When there was clear air between them, shots went off, followed by dashes and more swings. Like cat and mouse inside the mass skirmish taking place around them.

A whole lot of misses, near ones, but no hits. No weapons clashing, either. Nevertheless, it became increasingly clearer for Minato that Adam was not going to let him go about his own business.

A resignation dawned on Minato. The silver gun had to stay in place.

"For someone claiming to be friends with death, you're not willing to set up the appointment."

Minato wasn't one to talk much during combat other than to discuss tactics or relay orders, but even that was mostly on the move and the delivery was to be as concise as possible. Therefore, he paid no mind to Adam's taunt. Even if he would extend a verbal response, he was given no window to do so as Adam went back on the offensive, just like how it had been. His death was a peaceful one, strangely enough. It wasn't one preceded by grave wounds and excruciating pain. The presence of those sharing an unbreakable bond, the joy of reunion, and the sense of accomplishment, knowing they, a bunch of mad men, did it, against all odds, made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.

In any case, Minato felt he had seen enough of Adam's swordsmanship and was ready to apply some countermeasure. Adam had asked to be hit. Therefore, it would be rude to not oblige the request. One way to get back at the taunting, Minato thought. First, though, he needed an opening.

When Minato wasn't using his down time to get some sleep, have a meal, read books, or just strolling around, he scoured the net and played footages from the Vytal Festival tournament on his Scroll. He knew for one that a whole spectrum of responses could be mapped when he put himself in each of his friends' shoes.

That defensive mechanism, one that allowed combatants to receive stabs, cuts, crushes, elemental attacks, and even explosions, all without leaving any marks and wounds, piqued his interest. The tournament footages allowed him to learn some facts about it: There was a system designed to monitor its capacity, it protected each and every single one of them from receiving grave injuries on the spot, some could take an absurd amount of punishment while others only needed well-placed hits to be felled and everything in between within the spectrum.

Whether it was an innate ability possessed by the whole population, whether people could be trained to receive more punishment safely as they either aged or progressed further in training, and whether or not it needed time to be reactivated once it ceased to work; those are some of the key points Minato hadn't been able to put a finger on in the matter of said defensive mechanism. Although, he learned that it had a name, Aura. The commentators went on and on about it every ten seconds or so. It was impossible to miss.

He imagined Junpei would love the video game-inspired monitoring system. Akihiko would try finding out how much he could take by having Shinjiro and Ken hit him until wounds started appearing. Alternatively, the two male seniors might step outside for a fight to first blood instead. Aigis would wonder whether androids and animals possessed it before declaring the facts as inconclusive, although she would deduce that she and Koromaru had it all along out of good faith. Fuuka would think that she lacked the ability only to have Yukari comfort her stating it went into her navigation abilities, all the while Mitsuru would reach out to accomplished academics and experts to get answers from their own perspective.

While Minato's impression of Adam's swordsmanship was that it was formidable, undefeated at first, he began to realize it was rather inefficient. The draws of the sword were getting considerably quicker while maintaining the same degree of control but other than that he failed to see why it was done constantly. Producers and directors would swoon at the showcase, but this was a situation where lives were at stake.

After dodging yet another quickdraw attack, Minato went for it. With the sword in his left hand - his natural off-hand but he received tips from Akihiko to keep the awkwardness minimal – he took one step forward, positioned his right hand at the end of the hilt and got Adam tagged by pushing the tip of the blade all the way into Adam's wide-open chest area.

As Minato suspected, Adam also had Aura. The thrust left no marks, but Adam's whole body glowed while he gasped in response, confirming the hit being registered. It also gave Minato an on-sight demonstration of what he had previously known.

Minato then weaved his upper body backwards, giving nothing but thin air to Adam's return effort. And yet, they were both still within touching distance of each other without having to extend their blades. Seemingly what Adam wanted.

Adam suddenly jerked his left arm forwards and extended his scabbard, revealing the gun which had shot down Nigi Mitama on the balcony of the classroom building overlooking the main square. Minato was at point blank range, Adam would surely register a hit after so much chasing and missing.

But then, the noise coming from the gun being fired was not followed by another indicating something had been hit. No, all it found was thin air, just like any other attacks Adam had attempted.

Bullets, and other small arms projectile, were too quick for the eyes. However, the intended target could be predicted by looking at where the barrel was pointing.

Minato knew this, twisting his body just in time for the bullet to fire out and fly past. Adam was quick to respond as well, turning his gun around to follow Minato's body and have another crack.

This was it. Adam's eyes lit up on the opening, the course of attack was never this clear for him. The end of the barrel rested against its target. It was surely the end. A ruggedly built figure might have a chance to withstand a point-blank shot, regardless of Aura. However, on the opposing end of this one was a rather slender, pedestrian-looking guy with a sword and a much inferior-looking firearm he had successfully managed to keep the guy from using.

But there was nobody home, yet again. This time, however, the shot's direction had been diverted out of the target's own deliberation. A jolt ran up Adam's whole body. A display of such tenacity had left his mind crashing into a brick wall.

Just in the nick of time, Minato had grabbed Adam's gun-holding arm with his free hand and pushed it aside as the trigger was pulled. Adam expended energy in attempt to outmuscle the grip to no avail, Minato had his left hand locked in the opposing left arm tightly, making sure the gun stayed diverted.

Minato's risky effort had produced an unobstructed view of Adam's face from whiskers away. In a split second, Adam came to the same realization.

Adam had his tightly-gripped sword in the other hand, he could still get there and finally get to use his damage absorbing ability at the sight of the guy binding his left arm raising his sword and brought it down. Adam was hoping to get there in time catch the oncoming attack.

Both blades would come across, but this wasn't the case. The window was too wide for Adam to close in time. The attack struck violently off his face, and produced a rattling sound as part of the sword collided with his mask.

Cracked skull and an open gash. They're the kind of injuries one would expect suffer from a sharp blade striking the head. A combination of Aura and his mask prevented it from happening right away, something Adam was relieved of, despite the grunting response.

Minato kept at it, having forced Adam into an unnatural position. A violent lunge of the sword past Adam's own produced another crack on the mask, albeit smaller and shallower than the previous one. Another grunt escaped the recipient's mouth as the sword was pulled back towards its owner.

A clang preceded another attempt from Minato to drive his sword towards Adam. Another clang followed as both swords caught each other. It was succeeded by yet another clang. There was little movement after that, the force of one cancelled the other. Both of them had come to a standstill, awkwardly crossing swords while fighting for the control of Adam's gun.

"Let go!"

With grunts, gritting of the teeth, and his feet driven to the ground, Adam slowly tipped the balance in his favour. Never in his mind he perceived the pedestrian looking bluenette would even manage to land hits, let alone turning the fight into such a bind.

And yet, the White Fang leader continued to be surprised when Minato rebalanced the scales, releasing grunts that would otherwise make him sound out of character. It was clearly going nowhere and it wasn't like the world around them stopped to watch them settle it. The sound of gunfire, blunt and sharp weapons clashing were still heard around them.

Adam would've shoved his foot to Minato, had he not been struck in the back of the knee first. Minato let his sword slide down by the edge and past the negligible small round guard - the glowing of the red sword didn't go unnoticed - until it landed on Adam's gun-holding arm violently. Even though the glow of the Aura protected Adam from potentially suffering the same fate as the person receiving an eerily similar attack on the spot, the sting jolted all the way into his brain and he reflexively opened the left hand. The gun-scabbard made a crackling sound as soon as it made contact with the concrete they're standing on.

The blades were no longer locked against each other. Adam's eyes lit up again, looking to get one back after the violent hits to the face and arm but his sword's cutting edge met the false edge of his opponent's sword. Their legs clashed as one tried to gain control over the other only for both of them to lose footing and tip over at the same time, bodies crashing onto the floor.

The good news was that they were no longer in that awkward position due to the fall, and Adam's left arm had been freed. The bad news, for Adam at least, was that his scabbard disappeared. Minato had the presence of mind to throw it into the bushes.

To say Adam must not be allowed to get the part firearm part sword protection against the element was an understatement on Minato's part. He stood right in the path to the bushes where he had thrown it away. The straight, double-edged blade pointed downwards and somewhat sideways, with his right foot becoming the leading foot, a change in approach.

It was the same with Adam. No quickdraws cutting through metal like hot knife through butter until whenever he managed to recover the scabbard. Adam went with the standard frontal guard. Both hands grasping the hilt, sword raised at around the same height as where the scabbard would be, pointed slightly upwards towards the opponent.

Apparently, it was still not advisable for Minato to even attempt shoving his free hand into the holster slightly hidden behind his jacket just to undo the button that secured the Evoker in place. Adam immediately had his eyes darted at Minato's hip area and looked to place his blade there.

Minato looked a mixture of lacking the sense of self-preservation and general knowledge in his current posture. However, his response to Adam's oncoming attack was anything but. A simultaneous step back and a flick of the wrist sent his own sword upwards. Adam's sword absorbed the force – the glow of the sword became hard to miss after a couple of contacts – but he forgot that an object in motion stayed in motion with the same speed as he walked right into the pointy end of Minato's sword after it steered his own off course.

Adam reeled back after letting out a shriek, then pushed the tip of his sword towards Minato, who took a step back and raised his sword with to nudge Adam's aside. Adam's body was out of harm's way, but not his arms, which got tagged as Minato's sword came down to return the blow. Despite only a little chink, the impact shot up Adam's arm all the same.

After glancing Adam's thrust to the hip from a resting position, Minato used the excess momentum to again raise his sword and turn his wrist before bringing it down at a diagonal trajectory. A good portion of the edge found its way to Adam's ribs. Again, there was no injuries, but Adam could feel the part being hit throbbing.

Minato pulled back a step, brought the sword closer to his body, swerved to the side after using it to put Adam's sword out of play with both hands grabbing the hilt and then one-handedly returning it with what would have been a cut to the windpipe had it not been for Aura. Adam held his flaring neck with one hand while the other hand kept swinging.

Raising the sword closer to his face, again with both hands, Minato used Adam's own momentum to let an incoming thrust slid just past the cord keeping the pair of earphones in place. With a step forward, the swords grinded against each other but the pointy end of Minato's sword just pierced the clean air, narrowly missing the spot which he just struck.

If there was one thing Minato had to admit was lacking in this fight, it was his basic reach. It wasn't a battle of two extremes – like a toothpick against a spear – by any means, but Adam could be playing keep-away for all he knew, having the longer blade and all, instead of constantly attempting to take his head off. Perhaps it was due to that special attack which could potentially take Heather's life had he not managed to come across in time.

The action around them had gradually been subsiding, and Minato took that as a signal to find a way to finish it, one way or the other. All the hits he had landed felt like hitting a practice dummy due to Aura preventing Adam from sustaining injuries. There was no time to figure out how much more the White Fang leader could take.

For once in the fight, Adam decided to jump back, making them both out of reach of each other's blades. Perhaps this was Minato's chance to finally grab his Evoker.

However, as Minato cycled through his Personas, he saw it. The reds from before. Hair, mask graphics, the sash attached to Adam's hip, all seemed to come to life.

Adam had dragged his sword backwards, mimicking one of Minato's guards from earlier. With a scream from the top of his lungs, he unleashed the red slashing projectile, following an eight-to-two motion of the blade. It was much bigger than last time, easily dwarfing Minato, digging its way into the concrete ground as it curled towards its target.

The projectile would put an end to Minato's valiant effort, had it not for him raising his sword in time to get across. He planted both feet against the ground, becoming the immovable object to the projectile's unstoppable force. The stalemate broke in a blink of an eye, for something had to give.

Minato managed to stay on both feet. The force was as powerful as a speeding truck, and with Minato channelling the raw strength of a Persona he managed to set in the forefront of his mind just in time alongside his own, the double-edged sword cracked along the width of the blade, and then a sizable chunk flew just above his head and into the air, nowhere to be seen or heard again.

Minato blinked once, then once more. His ears immediately picked up a loud scream, and his eyes narrowed when the source was found, an incoming Adam Taurus from above with his sword held up in the air with both hands.

"Now DIE!"

If Adam hadn't made it clear that he was out for blood that night, he definitely did with that exclamation. His eyes immediately sparked right after he heard the sound of metal breaking.

The response Minato could think of in that moment was to put his left arm up, acting as shield in front of his face. Another thing might have to give as the red blade was brought down with power.

However, the blade never went through the unobstructed arm, not even an inch. It was as if it had clashed against a kind of impenetrable cushion.

"What!?" Adam gritted his teeth. He grunted, putting as much weight as possible into the sword, only to have it not budge even in the slightest.

In truth, Minato made the decision to ditch his initial plan of staying well away from Adam's blade and preventing the weapons from clashing out the window before the whole militia and the White Fang were even locked in combat. It was for the best, as he came up with a much sounder tactic: Simply draw the best-suited affinities and/or abilities from the Personas for his own use whenever necessary. In this case, he chose a certain high-level Persona which was able to render the lethality of slashing attacks to zero by its own. All he had to do was bring it to the forefront of his mind, making its innate immunity to edged weapon attacks his. It was inspired by that time he thought he would get squashed to death by a Grimm.

This was not possible at all in Minato's previous life. Despite the Personas' varying affinities and abilities, every direct hit to the person caused injuries, and were lethal if they were either too powerful or placed well enough. This resulted in him getting well acquainted with sustaining the occasional cuts and bruises, yet he soldiered on nevertheless.

While Adam was still processing it all, his sword arm was grabbed, and got pulled violently over the shoulder as his shirt was grabbed at the same time. He was trapped in perplexity, leaving him with little ways to react as he felt his lifted body being rolled in mid-air before he writhed in agony due to the impact of his back violently hitting the ground. He felt his whole upper body going limp, like electricity wired straight into his nervous system.

Minato thought of straddling Adam, but instead had his left knee holding down Adam's right arm which had let go of the sword due to the impact all the while simultaneously holding the shoulder down with his right foot. Having dropped the broken sword before throwing Adam into the ground, Minato reeled back his right hand, balled it into a fist, and sent it crashing down, landing square in Adam's face and breaking through the mask.

If the throw hadn't already knocked the wind out of Adam, the punch certainly did. The mask had been shattered, exposing a burn mark from his past which had rendered the eye it hit bloodied while the other eye had remained perfectly healthy. His shoulder and his back felt numb. Other areas of his body which had been hit earlier was either throbbing or flaring up, despite the lack of cuts and bruises. He couldn't hold back the heavy feeling in his eyes, and they shut shortly after.

On the other hand, Minato was not expecting to knock Adam out cold with just one punch, much less finding his hand wrapped in ice that adjusted to his hand. He watched the ice crept along the shape of his hand, producing small cracking sounds but showing no signs of breakdown in integrity with every squeeze and expansion. He flipped his icy hand over and over, then looked at Adam, and his unmasked face. Even though masks were a part of the White Fang's uniform, he came to understand why Adam would prefer keeping his on.

"Hold him still!"

Minato turned his head and saw Heather running towards them. As he saw the zip tie in her hand, he scooted aside, giving room for her to turn Adam on his belly and tie his hands together, with no resistance whatsoever. Minato placed a knee on Adam's back to prevent any more struggling. Minato breathed a sigh of relief, kneeling beside Heather as she made sure the zip tie was secure by putting on another one.

"Are you okay?" Heather placed a hand on Minato's shoulder. "Wait, your hand…" It wasn't long before she noticed his hand was still covered in ice as she examined her from top to bottom.

The ice receded to the fingertips as Minato gazed at it, leaving only healthy skin in its wake.

"I thought he'd crippled you when you're forced to fight with just your sword." Heather quipped. "But looks like there's no need to worry about it." She looked at Adam, then back to Minato, giving an approving nod.

Minato chuckled at the appreciation while letting out a sigh of relief at the same time. He looked around to locate what remained of his sword only to see it held safely in Heather's hands.

"I guess we'll have to do something about this…" The hilt remained perfectly intact, but only half of the blade was there. In the meantime, Heather handed it back to Minato who just slotted it into the sheath.

"Nice one, dude!" It was Sun's voice. He could finally make time to check out the situation with Adam with Blake on tow. Seeing that Adam had been neutralized, he raised a brow then grabbed Minato's hand and pulled him up. "I'm more of a high-flyer guy, so it's been a while since I last see some good old-fashioned brawling that works."

"I think almost all of you kids are, to a degree." Heather commented on Sun's remark. She placed a foot on Adam's back, hands holding her hip. Some would consider it rude, but when the guy was dangerous, in addition to nearly taking a life, moving the line slightly further up the road was not something to condemn.

In the midst of all that, Adam's eyes fluttered open. Minato noticed this first. Everybody else followed his gaze as they wondered what had gained his attention. As Adam's senses returned, the first thing he felt was his hands being tied behind his back. Then the sight of four people gawking at him. One of them happened to be Blake who was nowhere to be seen before he was locked in combat.

"I'm going to make you regret ever coming back, Blake!" Adam managed to muster enough energy to even be grunting, let alone glancing upwards.

Sun, Heather, and Minato stood in front of Blake in response, as if forming a barrier. No words came out from them, just glares.

"Still too afraid to face me on your own." Adam grinned. He was in a severely disadvantaged position and yet still had the gall to make light of the situation. "Making everyone else do the dirty work for you."

"Them's fighting words. You can't even beat a guy who doesn't use guns." Sun twirled his weapon, a red staff with gold engravings and lever action triggers attached to it. "It's a volunteer gig, by the way."

According to the Student License Heather had forged for Minato, he could've made up words to indicate him being one of Blake's classmates, as it was stated to be issued from the currently not operational Huntsman Academy located almost right smack in the centre of Remnant. Then again, he didn't know what year Blake was supposed to be, only that Huntsman education lasted for four years. Plus, with these institutions having supposedly low admittance rates despite the high number of applicants each year – clearly there was interest for this line of work despite the risks it presented, though it would be nice if he could get an access to the numbers for the sake of fact-checking – declaring that he was her classmate might raise suspicion. Therefore, he chose to not say a word.

"I'm here for Haven." Blake gave Adam a frosty look. "…Not you."

Adam's face turned sour. For the first time, he found it difficult to respond in a verbal exchange.

"You can try making me regret coming here, Adam..." Blake continued. "But honestly, I've got more important things to deal with."

Upon hearing that, Adam almost wanted to let out a laugh, but he settled on chuckling. "You are still afraid…and you should be." He kept coming back to the subject of fear. Perhaps his obsession with Blake had grown to even more dangerous levels. "I've made powerful friends while you've been awa-"

Adam was abruptly stopped by a foot stomping the back of his head, driving his face to the ground. He didn't make anymore sound as it knocked him unconscious again. The three teenagers would have to thank Heather for that.

"HUSH!" Heather yelled at the top of her lungs, index finger pointing at the head she was putting her foot on. "Sorry. It's grating to listen to." She looked at Blake, worrying she might take it the wrong way.

"That's…one way to shut him up." Blake remarked. The mixed feelings of relief and pity were written on her face.

"Eh, he deserves it anyway, for what happened at Beacon." Sun was supportive of what Heather just did. "It's high time everything he's done comes back to him."

"Was he always like that, trying to get into your nerves?" Heather asked the two teenage Faunus, taking her foot off Adam's head.

"It's part of his repertoire." Blake answered with some brevity. "Still, thank you." Her lips developed into a gentle smile, extending the gratitude towards Heather and especially Minato.

Heather returned the smile with a grin, while Minato only nodded. Blake and Sun could've sworn they saw the corner of Minato's mouth quirk up ever so slightly.

"Where did you go? You just straight up disappeared earlier." Heather moved on to the questioning, shooting one at Blake who was nowhere to be seen in the square until just now.

"I picked up Minato's last-minute tip and decided to check inside the hall…" So far, every little change and turns of events had been relayed through the communication device Heather provided. "…then I saw my teammates." Blake finished her explanation.

"…Oh." Heather comprehended in an instant. "They might be part of the group of eight you saw entering before we showed up." She addressed Minato while making sure Adam's unconscious body was comfortable enough to be used as a cushion. She then sat on it. Exhaustion was written all over her face.

"You guys better surrender, 'cause we've got your boss pinned down!" The fighting around them had been gradually dying down, but with Sun's exclamation, it finally came to a halt. The staff he was holding transformed into a nunchuck which he pointed forwards like pistols. Apparently, that's what the triggers were for. That's three out of three weapons with firearm modes Minato witnessed in person. "Or are you just gonna ditch your lord and savior?" Challenging words directed at the White Fang members came out of Sun's mouth.

Having dropped their weapons and put their hands up, the White Fang members noticed some gaps and immediately broke through the crowd of militia, going to different directions either on their own or with their comrades. Naturally, the whole militia went after them.

"It's the latter…" Minato quipped.

"That's a surprise…" Heather's brows perked up.

All that time, the group were wondering where Ilia were until she suddenly emerged from the crowd of Faunus chasing the White Fang members. "You got Adam?" She jogged towards them.

"Yep." Heather put emphasis on the P, nodding at Ilia.

"What do we do now?" There was little pause as Ilia skirted it aside for the time being, standing by for Heather's next instruction.

"You join the chase." Heather immediately addressed the question, to which Ilia nodded and went off right away.

Next was Sun. "You keep watch right here. Once the police come here to help me take Adam away, you're free to join Ilia."

Lastly, Blake. Heather perked her head to the direction of the hall ahead. "If you wanna get back in there, then go. Take Minato with you."

Minato was standing beside Sun but then turned around to face Heather after his name was mentioned.

Heather let out a chuckle while flapping a hand in front of her face. "I just remembered Ruby is Blake's teammate." She explained the reason behind her instruction.

Minato's eyes widened slightly as he heard it. He stole a glance at Blake who instantly turned her head towards Heather. The probability of Blake being in the party of four girls Elizabeth encountered increased tenfold.

"…How did you know?" Blake blinked once before asking the question.

"Watched you guys compete at the Vytal Festival. Team RWBY, right?" Heather crossed her legs, eyeing Blake in her reverie.

"Would've made the finals if it wasn't for Mercury provoking Yang after the fight." Sun chimed in.

"Yang was right after all?" Blake stared at Sun.

"Heh, believe me, I know when someone's trying to drag the other guy down with 'em." Sun grinned, his jovial tone was followed by one of confidence.

"Is that so…?" Heather asked sarcastically.

Minato had zero idea what they were talking about and was just standing there, waiting for Blake to lead the way.

"Check on Lionheart if you find him." Meanwhile, Heather had something else to add before Minato and Blake left the scene.

Minato had nothing to say about it, choosing to nod in response. Not for Blake, though.

"Professor Lionheart is fine…" She opened her mouth, delivering the good news. "But I don't think he's on our side." Then the bad news, which if true, would potentially far outweigh the good one.

Heather thought she could finally breathe a sigh of relief until Blake dropped the bombshell. Minato blinked at Blake, his visible brow furrowed ever so slightly.

"What?" Heather gasped. Her jaw momentarily dropped before closing it almost right after, still processing what Blake just said. "How?"

"He might have let the White Fang in, along with the same people responsible for the Fall of Beacon." Blake explained. Aside from the choice of words, her tone was one of certainty.

"Don't just jump into conclusions, Blake." Heather wore a sceptical look on her face. She had to be sure, all the while holding back the feelings of surprise and disappointment. "…And are you implying the White Fang weren't only the ones responsible for that?"

"There's no time to explain!" Blake's tone rose. She turned to the hall, and then back to Heather. "They're inside, fighting my friends. I need to help them!"

Minato had been watching the conversation go on as he connected the dots inside his head. Even before proceeding into the establishment, something about how the White Fang getting in just like that was off. Granted, the academy was on a break, yet it was strange that there was next to no security presence.

"Then go! They could use it right about…now." Sun stepped in, ending the conversation between the two females, and urged Blake to get a move on. Heather had no choice but to concede for the time being.

"Don't get killed, you two." Despite being left hanging and puzzled, Heather didn't forget to warn the two teenagers going off ahead.

"Back at you, Heather." It was the first time Minato actually addressed Heather by her name, almost the same way it took him a long time to address Yukari by her name. They hit it off much sooner than that, though.

"Be careful." Blake approached Sun and patted him on the shoulder.

"No promises." Sun received the caution with great appreciation, his lips quirking up.

Before they went on ahead, Minato unclipped the sheath of his now broken sword from the white Evoker belt and gave it to Heather for her to hold onto. She needed no words as her glance met his calm, yet reassuring gaze projected from his one visible eye instead of the usual dead fish-like gaze that she couldn't really get a read on. She knew not everybody were chatterboxes but never before she witnessed that much emotion conveyed through just one part of the face.

Once Blake and Minato were at the hall's doorstep, they steered clear of the huge opening and pressed their backs against one of the intact wooden doors, watching the events unfolding inside through the holes which previously had decorative glass panels installed.

"Why did she mention Ruby?" Blake spared a momentary glance at Minato, then continued to examine the situation inside the brightly lit open space just beyond them.

It was a fair question. One that Minato knew would catch up to him. Although, he was hoping it would be sometime later. With Ruby Rose herself reported to be inside the hall they were about to enter, he hadn't come up with a good enough explanation for it.

"Acquaintance of my associate." It was the best answer Minato had for the moment. They were a little tight on time, as well.

"What do you want with her?" Blake prodded. Yellow irises darted at the rather indifferent look of Minato's. What turned out to be another healthy grey iris peeked through the slight gap of the swiping blue bangs which meticulously covered a good half of his face as he ever so slightly turned his head towards her. She was slightly taken aback as the gaze meeting her own was rather piercing, despite the lack of frowns on his face. She had previously assumed he was hiding a condition underneath that much hair, too.

"I'll explain later." Minato directed his gaze away, prompting Blake to do the same. He sighed, getting the feeling she was not letting it go, if the frown written all over her face was of any indication. "I mean no harm, if that's what you're asking."

Whether it was assuring enough or not was up in the air. Nevertheless, there was no time to let it interfere with the more pressing matter. The exchange of words came to a halt, with Blake keeping her eyes darted to different directions while Minato's were focused on the giant, not-so-tangible yet solid enough to inflict and take damage bee hovering above the combatants inside. Despite its appearance Minato couldn't help but having images of Grimm flashing in his memory.

"Who do we fight?"

Minato fired the question. He had the slightest of ideas about who was on which side, but he'd rather have the utmost conviction about it. Knowing was half the battle, as he could attest.

Blake took a quick second to identify the hostile party, before lifting an index finger, using it as an indicator of some kind. Minato glanced at the finger, then trailed the direction it was pointing.

"That one, Emerald…" First was the girl in green, in her hands were what looked like sickles which doubled as guns. "Mercury…" Then to the kick-happy guy who just fired a shot from his heels. "The big guy, but I don't know his name…" Next, the guy from earlier who had crystals embedded in his arms as Minato recalled. "…and Professor Lionheart." Lastly, the man with a mane of brown hair and equally as amazing beard standing on the staircase located to the far side of the hall.

Minato jutted down his mental note, focusing on the four identified hostiles as the giant bee got hit with fire coming out of the circular gauntlet attached on Lionheart's left arm. At the same time, Blake started scooting closer to the huge opening. She momentarily stopped, as she looked back to see him remaining stationary.

"Are you coming or not?" There was no time for Blake to be annoyed at Minato's lack of urgency as she looked around to find a higher vantage point. Meanwhile the giant bee had been reduced to nothing after taking another raging fire, this time from the big guy.

"Go on ahead." To which Minato replied as such, watching Blake climbed onto a higher vantage point to then turn his attention back to the conflict inside.

Minato watched Blake make her supposed re-entry, taking her place beside the girl wearing a combination of red, black, and cream; and another friend of hers, clad primarily in blue and had hair which colour reminded him of the snowy days during the build-up to the final battle atop the dreaded tower. In other news, he finally had the opportunity to take out the silver gun and brought it up. He then tiptoed his way to the entrance, waiting for the triumvirate comprised of the unknown big guy, Mercury, and Emerald to converge.

When they did, it was his cue. With a heightened sense of urgency, Minato pointed the cold metal of the summoning device at his head and pulled the trigger. Another Persona was about to be introduced to the harsh world he had only been on for the better part of five days.

"Parvati."

Drawing from prior experiences in regards to keeping things in place, Parvati was selected. Mothman and Black Frost were not the only Personas of his to possess powerful enough abilities while also being not as taxing to field for extended periods of time.

With its hands clasped together, Parvati made barely any sound, step by step entering the battlefield. A few steps later, it opened its eyes, hands grabbing the piece of clothing twirling around it, gaze directed at the three converging enemies.

The ground they were standing on suddenly felt cold to the touch. Solid ice immediately billowed from right underneath their soles, making its way up to wrap their feet. Before they could even do as much as trying to jerk free, their lower limbs became completely encased. It eventually covered them from head to toe, with the reflective surface becoming duller and much less translucent due to the massive increase in density.

Minato's gaze darted to the staircase, spotting Lionheart aiming his weapon at Parvati. While not particularly weak, Parvati wasn't one to take hits. He had a Persona at the ready as he placed the barrel against his head again, all the while remaining relatively undetected.

"Orpheus."

Orpheus was already in its flying posture when it manifested into tangibility. It raced towards the staircase, blowing a gust of wind as it grabbed Lionheart with both hands.

The grasp squeezed Lionheart tightly. He shivered as the one visible orb of magenta pierced right through his own. His face became completely devoid of colour, his lips trembled, and he couldn't even find the energy to move his arms or look away from it.

In an instance, the magenta orb glowed, and Lionheart felt himself exploding while being thrown to an inferno and back at the same time. Whether he should be grateful or not to find out that he was still breathing, although shallowly, after he was put down was open to interpretation. Orpheus had left him with torn clothes, burnt skin, and nothing left in the tank. Perhaps if it wasn't for Aura, he wouldn't remain in one piece. Then again, it was probably an overkill in the first place.

It was such a horrifying sight that didn't go amiss by everybody watching. As Blake eyed the floating figure with her eyes wide, she realized it bore a like-and-like resemblance to someone just stepping into the hall.

"Minato?" Blake called to Minato, walking around the three figures trapped in ice accompanied by a lady figure taller than him, wearing an outfit of unknown origin. Although the lady had its eyes closed, she somehow felt deeply gazed into, something the two girls beside her were also experiencing, if their bodies reeling back ever so slightly as it towered over them was any indication.

Having remembered the characteristics Elizabeth mentioned, Minato had ample conviction that he was looking eye-to-eye at the girl.

"Ruby Rose?" If Elizabeth could remember Ruby's full name without fumbling, so could Minato. His dull grey iris locked onto Ruby's glossy, silver ones. He didn't miss the sight of the white-haired girl tilting her neck up and down, gawking at Parvati. She sported a cut mark in her dress and there was blood around it. However, there seemed to be no wounds, leading Minato to safely assume that she was previously hurt but had been healed.

"Y-yes?" Ruby did her best to keep her breathing stable amidst the sudden jump of having a complete stranger address her by her full name. "Who are you?".

"This is Minato." Blake extended her free hand towards Minato, as if inviting for a hand shake. "He's a friend…apparently." Although, it was all she could say. There had been no time to get acquainted, after all.

"Nice to meet you." Minato nodded. Hearing the confirmation brought a stream of relief to him, also because Blake was convinced enough to at least not tell everybody to have a piece of him. Most importantly Ruby was here, and she was alright. Exhausted, but alright nonetheless.

"How did you know my name?" It was a natural question to ask.

Unlike Blake's prodding earlier, Minato seemed to have an answer ready for that one. That being said, they were in the midst of a conflict. Therefore, a short one would have to suffice.

"Elizabeth sent me." Minato stated, banking on the meeting Elizabeth mentioned actually happening. Whether or not Ruby caught her name was another issue.

"Elizabeth?" Ruby held her gun with one hand and her chin with the other. "I…"

They were interrupted by a cracking sound. Even the adult and the kid at the far side had their heads turned, immediately picking up where it came from. Minato's eyes ever so slightly narrowed as the largest ice trap in the middle kept producing the same sound. Truth be told, he thought it would stay firm for just a little longer until he could at least learn why a fight was taking place, and whether they knew they might have walked into a trap.

While the enemies were still encased, Orpheus took the time to grab the string instrument floating on its back and strummed gently. On cue, warm yellow light highlighted Minato, Ruby, Blake, and everybody else considered to be allies, followed by a glowing ball of white which disappeared shortly after. While a welcome addition, he vividly remembered it needing a partner to perform that one. Perhaps it learned something new when he was in an inactive state.

"Whoa…" The white-haired girl was struggling to not let her jaw drop and her eyes open wide.

"What...did that just do?" Despite earlier scepticism, the features on Blake's face had softened up towards Minato.

"It feels refreshing!" Ruby's tone was quite jovial, despite the situation they were currently in.

"It's like my Aura has been regenerated." The orange-haired girl not too far away from them described the refreshing aspect.

"I feel like I can move through the air. Thanks!" The blond wearing armour over hoodie, carrying a sword in one hand and a shield in the other sounded his appreciation. His remark of the agility enhancer spell's effect was quite accurate.

The responses didn't overlap the most pressing matter, that the three people encased in ice from head to toe could be free any moment. Minato stepped forward, with Parvati taking its position beside him.

"Take five." Minato addressed. He had to raise his volume a tiny bit, since everyone was scattered here and there.

Despite having a hands-off approach to leadership, it wasn't the first time Minato offered to take over in combat. During those moments, his true role as the one giving the final push to get them over the hump shined.

"Not to be rude, but she doesn't look like the fighter type…" Though obvious, the white-haired girl pointed it out. While it could be considered a throwaway line, the assumption that she was also part of the group Elizabeth met grew.

Minato had considered bolstering the ice traps, but immediately came to a realization that they would eventually break anyway. Therefore, Parvati was allowed to be pulled back. It became translucent, then broke into shards that disintegrated into nothingness. The white-haired girl was a little taken aback at the sight, having thought he wasn't listening to her at first.

There were three enemies. With Parvati withdrawn, Orpheus was the only Persona out. It occupied the space above Minato, slightly to his right. However, the disparity in numbers would soon be no more as he had something in mind. For that, lifted the silver gun he had been holding in his right hand, placing the cold barrel against his head.

"What are you doing?" It was the long-haired guy in green who shouted first.

"Hey, stop!" The older man stretched an arm out.

"This isn't the time for suicide!" Then the orange-haired girl.

"Wait!" Surprisingly, the last line came from the kid who held onto his cane for support.

In all fairness, those words were considered fair reactions upon witnessing somebody pointing a gun to their head.

"Come forth…"

Nevertheless, Minato ignored them. His left hand was out of the pocket, fingers flexing outward. With his eyes shut, he reached deep into the Sea of Souls for a suitable Persona. One of them immediately stepped forward before he even began roll-calling. It did so, because it had been longing for the opportunity.

With only the cracking sounds as the guide, Minato waited. The ice trap on the big guy was rapidly deteriorating and yet it felt like an eternity. At the sound of the loudest crack, Minato's brows furrowed, then his eyes jerked open, and his finger squeezed the trigger.

This particular Persona had been getting the honour to be Elizabeth's vanguard during her many escapades, despite her ability to use whatever at her disposal. She also managed to basically retrain it, giving it versatility. On top of all, she was preparing it for him. While the Evoker, the sword, the photographs, the Lien, and the other items were important, she considered this Persona to be the most important of all, for it was her parting gift.

It wasn't just any Persona. It was bestowed upon Minato in the middle of a tragic event that took lives of his loved ones. Years, and a startling revelation later, made him perceive it as a curse. Yet not once did his companions blame him, not once did they ever think of abandoning him. Instead, it gave them a meaning, a purpose which they carried for the rest of their lives, perhaps also passed down to future generations. On top of all, they managed to form an unbreakable bond in between them. One that transcends time, space, and even death.

On a more personal note, it served as a symbol of friendship between Minato and the person who once assumed the form. He, along with all the other resident of the Sea of Souls, was more than happy to welcome it back with open arms. Now, he would award it with its first outing since its return.

"THANATOS!"

The gun went off, but instead of blood, translucent shards of light popped from the other side of Minato's head accompanied by the sound of glass breaking. A vortex appeared in an empty bit of real estate between Minato and the group behind him. The same translucent shards converged in several places.

Starting from the bottom, they worked their way up, taking on the tangible form of a pair of legs in thigh-high white sleeves. At the same time, fingers extended into whole arms, wrapped in a pair of white gloves stretching just past its elbows. Eight identical coffins came into shape, each notched to chains attached to a red shoulder belt at the other end. The torso was clad in a form-fitting long coat shaded similarly to the clear night skies, unbuttoned from the waist down which the sleeved legs. A red belt emblazoned its waist with a golden circular buckle with the image of a skull jutting out locked it in place. Said belt had a sheathed sword attached to it. The shards had just finished constructing the whole torso, then more converged, creating a blank head finished by a white outer shell protruding out at the top and bottom of the head while leaving a huge opening in the middle, a form akin to an open beak. A hole on each sides of the shell completed the mask, giving the God of Death its face.

If its size didn't make everyone shrink, the ghastly wail Thanatos released to the air as it stretched out its limbs surely did. It hovered level to Orpheus, who was already standing by right above its user.

Said user dug his right hand into a pocket inside his jacket, pulling out a pair of fingerless leather gloves which he immediately put on. Another dig into the same pocket later, he fitted a pair of metal knuckles which had rubber bands as grip extension over his fingers. He acquired the piece of equipment for basically next to nothing after having a little conversation with the Market District's weapons merchant earlier in the day.

The two figures gained a special attention from the white-haired girl. While the fairly light-colored one didn't exude any particular feeling just like the impassiveness of the person sharing its likeness, the coffins of the other being sent shivers down her spine. Even so, she just couldn't shake the familiarity around the latter. "Call me crazy, but I think I've seen those coffins before." She muttered.

"That gun he's using also looks familiar..." Blake chimed in.

Ruby had some words, although the gears inside her head were spinning at maximum speed to find a way to articulate them. It was like having all the pieces to make a puzzle but not knowing what it was supposed to look like. She quizzically looked at the two figures, then the blue-haired boy standing underneath them.

Speaking of which, it wasn't like Minato couldn't hear all the quips, but he chose not to comment for the time being as he watched the ice traps beginning to lose huge pieces.

"The big guy is the strongest of them, most resolute too. Watch out for him."

Minato glanced at the source of the voice, the adult man kneeling on the ground to the far left. He gave the man, assumingly a Huntsman, a calming nod as a form of appreciation. As he turned his attention back to the three men still trapped in ice, Orpheus grabbed its lyre and held it with one hand, while Thanatos reached for the sword with its right arm and pulled it out, releasing an even louder wail than the previous one. Perhaps he needed to calm it down a little, because the slightest of unrest would lure Grimm to the area.

While there was still time, Minato took it to attempt yet more techniques he just discovered while he was doing a little shakedown in the middle of the day. Balling his left hand and bringing it close to his chest, he let an air of red seep through the fingers. Then it exploded, momentarily highlighting him with red light traveling upwards. Next, he opened the same balled hand and performed a pushing motion forward. Light blue honeycomb momentarily surrounded him from underneath his feet, confirming its application.

At the sight of their user balling his arms and raising them, Orpheus held its lyre with both hands while Thanatos pulled its sword back and let the pointy end rested on its free hand. The ice trapping the big guy blasted into pieces, and Thanatos immediately called dibs and executed a giant swing with the sword, carrying enough force to launch its recipient through a pillar supporting walkways around the perimeter of the room before coming to a stop at the wall. The big guy became trapped in the rubble, caused by the platform collapsing. Although, with the big size came equally as much, if not more, strength, as he blew the pieces away and crawled from within. Thanatos tugged the chains that controlled its coffins and placed them upfront, bringing them until there was zero gap in between to take the brunt of the debris flying towards it.

The bits of the collapsed walkway flew to other places, most notably the two ice traps. One of them was big enough to completely shatter the ice encasing Mercury, allowing him to simply walk free. Emerald wasn't as lucky. Despite the debris also hitting her ice trap, it only knocked off enough ice to expose her entire upper body. As she was dragging one of the sickles back, Orpheus ran its fingers through all of the strings in its instrument, the magenta orbs glowed immediately after followed by a screech. The explosion shattered the remaining ice trapping her, and launched her into the air at the same time.

Thanatos, with its far superior reach, grabbed the big guy and sent him flying across the hall with while Orpheus shot a trail of fire along the floor which forced Emerald to dodge while recovering before it chased after her. Seeing that, Minato set his feet on the ground and pushed against it, launching his whole person at the direction of Mercury who had his sights distracted after dusting off the ice. Mercury reacted just in time to jump backwards and release a spinning thrust kick that collided with Minato's fist coming at an overhead trajectory.

Mercury rushed in after landing on his feet. The two had a clash of shins, then he swung and missed with his other foot. A fist would have landed on his liver had he not lower his arm enough. With the other hand, he turned a cross aside. Both of them appeared to be equal in defending, as a kick aimed to the abdomen got deflected away.

Minato attempted to straddle Mercury after converting a side kick into a hip toss but had to get out of the way to avoid getting swept off his feet. However, the show of athleticism stopped and he immediately dashed to close the range. He threw a quick jab with the left hand, then a cross with the other, finished with a quick check at the liver, all nullified effortlessly. The path to the solar plexus was open, but Minato was forced to pull his head back to avoid getting a boot mark on his face. He immediately did the same with his body.

The two previous kicks had missed but Mercury had the optimal distance for another thrust kick to the head. Suddenly, the swiping blue hair wasn't there as he let one fly. Instead, his neck experienced a violent jerk as a fist landed square on his face. He was able to recover from getting rotated as a result of the punch, using his heel guns to propel himself into the air before landing gracefully with both feet.

Both Mercury and Minato could be going at it for another exchange of blows, but instead they kept themselves reasonably out of reach. They danced around, attempting to out-circle each other. Mercury lifted a foot and immediately pulled it back, no response. He spun on his heels before shifting forward, but stopped it midway. Again, no response. The neutral expression already made Minato hard to read, the lack of response to the feints didn't help.

Eventually, Mercury blinked first. He went for the ankles, but almost got a foot to his face for the punishment of missing the target. The next two kicks from a grounded position and was met with equal resistance as well. He had to put his hands up on the way back to his feet otherwise his face would've been caved in.

Switching his leading foot from right to left helped close the distance, and allowed Minato to apply pressure. He let the jab get neutralized and then saw the opening to get an overhead swing in. Yet, it never came. An uppercut with the leading hand was launched in its place which did nothing more than grazing the chin after it was diverted at the very last split second. It was immediately countered with a heel kick that met a blocking arm. Minato crouched forwards and let the foot going around to tag him on the other side of his head miss.

There was nothing between them after Minato executed the immaculate footwork he learned from Akihiko. There were multiple options to choose from, but he went with the uppercut again. This time, the window was too big to close in time, and he could feel the metal knuckles pressing against Mercury's chin.

The counter-hit would have caused Mercury to stumble away but Minato wasn't going to let the gap open up. Therefore, he reached out, firmly grasped Mercury's arms, then tugged his whole person back into his own range, but was met with some resistance. Knowing this, Minato took a step forward and jammed a knee to the lower ribs, sending a sting sharper than the real ones that shot all the way into Mercury's brain.

Mercury hunched sideways, right into the path of a sharp elbow to the cheek. Next thing he knew was he got launched back first into the wall behind him, courtesy of a punch to the solar plexus which power was akin to that of someone he just faced earlier. He had to escape an incoming flying kick by launching himself off the wall and landed right in the middle of the hall.

Despite having the protection of Aura, the accumulation of all the hits made his senses send all kinds of reports to his brain. Still, it wasn't the worst thing to happen to him by a long shot. There was no time to think about that as the stranger in blue hair got close to him again. In prior experiences, he had been able to create enough separation to execute some of his more personalized moves. So far, it wasn't the case. It was one of those fights where he had to really work for it. Naturally, they were also the most rewarding upon victory.

After the brief observation from outside and the exchanges of blows, Minato figured out one thing about Mercury; he had a favourite move. As Mercury jumped and tucked his leg in, Minato stepped forward, opening his arms. A Persona helped lending its strength in the forefront of his mind, allowing Minato to catch Mercury in mid-air before the kick came out. Minato immediately wrapped his arms around the hip and locked his hands together.

Mercury paused at the realization that he was being held in the air. Although, he immediately pulled himself back from the stupor, grasping the arms wrapped around him and used all of his power to pull them away, kicking his legs out at the same time to help squirm free, but to no avail.

A lightbulb immediately lit up in Mercury's head. Knowing that he could generate lift from the guns attached to his feet, he fired them forwards. The recoil managed to lift Minato's feet off the ground. Surely, he could turn things around.

Out of sheer reflex, Minato arched his back in mid-air and flipped Mercury over his head.

A sudden coldness hit at Mercury's core. It turned out to be the worst idea of all just as the back of his head and neck hit the ground, crushing the floor underneath. After letting out a squeal, his mouth remained agape and his eyes rolled. The rest of his body immediately shut down and went limp. Gravity did the rest.

It grabbed everybody's attention.

"Mercury!" With Emerald being the most animated. She had been fighting on the other side of the room, struggling to get away from the giant figure carrying a stringed instrument, occasionally having to take the brunt of the fireballs it hurled with the degree of accuracy only matched by a dear friend of hers.

The moment of distraction was all Orpheus needed. It pulled the lyre back and jammed it at Emerald's body, launching her into the air. She tried hurling a chained blade at it, but a fireball got to her first, plummeting her into the floor and ended up smashing the floor near where Mercury was lying helplessly. They were joined by their other associate shortly after, managing to stay on both feet, though only just, after being pushed to the corner by the other floating being seeking to chop his head off.

Orpheus and Thanatos converged with Minato as he shifted backwards after letting Mercury's limp body drop to the floor. The big guy was close to dropping, while Emerald was on all fours, clutching her abdomen. After just regaining consciousness, Mercury clutched his neck and slowly got to his knees.

Minato had been wondering whether Aura had a knock-on effect on a person's resilience. The sight of Mercury and Emerald slowly getting up made him raise his fists again, with the Personas assuming their battle postures. Regardless of how much they had left in the tank, he was aware that the next hit that landed may be lethal for them. Still, he had all the right to defend himself if they came rushing back.

Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on who was asking – it was not going to happen. Ruby and her companions of same age were done resting and had stepped in, each with their weapon brandished. Minato allowed himself to relax and slightly lowered his hands.

"That's enough!" Ruby pointed her gun at them. "Just give up."

Mercury grunted loudly, lifting an arm but found it hard to slam down on the floor, instead grabbed the neck which had constantly been throbbing.

"It's not over, Cinder will come back. She'll have the relic and she'll stop all of you!" Emerald was certain of it. Even in the face of defeat – or death if it wasn't for the progressions being halted - nothing was going to deter her conviction. Nothing. "She won't let us down."

The sound of gears interrupted them. As it so happened, there was a sizable hole on the floor lined up with the one taking a good portion of the landing at the centre of the staircase. From it emerged a platform supported by a statue. Standing on it was a blonde girl holding a lantern in her hand. It didn't take long for Minato to figure out who the prosthetic arm belonged to. The platform itself stopped at the staircase's landing.

With relief washing over the faces of Ruby and her companions, Orpheus and Thanatos immediately moved over, hovering just in front of the one-armed girl. Minato followed them and stopped in front of the statue before turning around to face the hostiles again.

Speaking of the hostiles, there was a stark contrast in their reaction. Resignation of defeat. The big guy let out a mild grunt that echoed across the area, and tears began wallowing in Emerald's eyes.

The blonde girl – named Yang, as Minato overheard Ruby call to her – was surprised at the two figures hovering in front of her in a protective manner. It was only momentarily, as her features softened, returning the relieved faces of the people to her right with a smirk.

Emerald's conviction crumbled, much like she dropped her weapons then dropped herself on all fours, gasping loudly, unable to hold back her tears. Her two companions began stepping back.

"Emerald, get up. We need to go…" Mercury reached out, and all Emerald had for a response was a shake of the head. "Emerald…"

Emerald looked to the right, left, then clutches her head, screaming at the top of her lungs.

While the others had more animated reactions, Minato only blinked to make sure his eyes didn't deceive him as the surroundings turned grey and the lights turned red. A section of the floor was covered in black smoke.

From the smoke, a figure rose, that of a woman, towering over all of them. Black dress swiping the floor, bone white hair and complexion, red veins running along the visible skin. Every bit of it gave Minato the impression of Grimm. Its completely black eyeballs and red pupils only made the impression all the more accurate.

The figure wailed at them, its magnitude rivalling that of Thanatos'. Speaking of which, it flew at breakneck speed at the figure and managed to land its blade at it, only for the figure to completely disappear like a shadow. With its disappearance, everything returned back to normal. The three hostiles have disappeared along with it, leaving no traces whatsoever.

Minato showed little to no reactions, but everyone else couldn't hold back the shivers. "What…what was that?" Blake spoke up, looking to everyone. He too would like to know the same thing.

"An illusion, but an accurate one." The kid, holding on to what looked like a cane, spoke. "That…was Salem." Then he gave it a name.

Everyone lowered their weapons. Minato blew a sigh of relief, followed by Blake immediately after. Thanatos was about to raise the coffins chained to its back and try giving chase, but Minato had to deny the idea. It instead took the time to circle around the hall, all the while Orpheus got into its idling position, grabbing the musical instrument and played some calming tunes.

When Thanatos was done with keeping a brief watch, it returned to hovering beside Orpheus. Thanatos couldn't help but look on, like the gazes Minato sometimes receive courtesy of his impassiveness.

Sun, along with two Faunus entered the hall. The latter two immediately embraced Blake. Meanwhile, it just hit Minato that he left in the middle of a huge skirmish happening outside. Therefore, he approached the group of Faunus with the intention of asking for sit-rep.

"The police rounded out the White Fang members. Haven is safe." It was the female Faunus sporting the same type of ears as Blake who spoke first

"Fortunately, with Mrs. Shields' help, we have also managed to detain Adam." Continued by the elder male Faunus, who Minato could safely assume to be the chieftain.

"Heather was just taking him away." Sun chimed in. It gained the attention of the two elder Faunus. Blake, despite already knowing the real turn of events, looked at him regardless. "This guy here did the dirty job. Took on Adam by himself while we were busy." He pointed an index finger at the approaching Minato in a casual manner.

"Mrs. Shields must've forgotten to tell me about it." The elder male Faunus easily dwarfing Minato in size raised his eyebrows.

The elder female Faunus suddenly shrieked. Personas, especially Thanatos, tend to have that effect on people.

"It's okay, uh..." Minato noticed this and tried calming her down. Not knowing her name made addressing her a bit of a problem.

"These are my parents. Mom, Dad, this is Minato." Helping to fill the blanks was Blake.

"Ah yes, I believe we haven't been introduced." The chieftain extended his hand. "I'm Ghira Belladonna, chieftain of Menagerie. This is my wife, Kali. And I assume you've met my daughter here, Blake."

"Minato Arisato." Despite not knowing much about the political system in Remnant, it didn't go amiss for Minato that he was talking to an influential person. He extended his own hand and shook the chieftain's along with his wife's. "It's an honour."

"The White Fang, particularly Adam Taurus and his splinter group, have been causing unrest amongst not just the Faunus, but also the society, with their acts of terror, ever since their partaking of the Fall of Beacon." Ghira pulled his hand back while giving a little run-down on Adam. "You have our utmost gratitude for what I assume to be a tremendous effort in taking him down, Mr. Arisato."

Minato nodded back, appreciating the gratitude.

"What…are those!?" Kali went back to the two figures floating in the distance.

"It's okay, Mrs. Belladonna. They have no intention to harm anyone." Minato calmed Kali down.

"Do you possess command over them?" Ghira asked.

Minato nodded.

While they were in the middle of the conversation, Ilia joined in.

"Adam and his splinter group aside, I have to admit that we've been fighting amongst ourselves for too long. Perhaps it's time for a new brotherhood. A new family for Faunus truly working towards a better world." Ghira turned his attention to the whole group of Faunus.

Minato found it wise to just shove his hands into his pockets and scoot away, as it was something of an internal issue that he felt wasn't his to take care of. He then watched Blake walk up to the three girls huddled together. It didn't take long for her to fall into their embrace, and he couldn't help but feel content at the sight. It was always a nice feeling, as he first found out when he witnessed Fuuka and her then-bully Natsuki develop into close friends.

"She's been away from them after what happened at Beacon." Sun commented, having stood beside Minato after pushing Blake towards the embrace of her teammates. The bluenette needed no reminder of how severe it was, not to mention the ramifications, having heard about it all from Elizabeth. "Not to say I didn't try talking her into coming back, but I'm happy that she's reunited with them. I wasn't expecting them to be here either."

"I think nobody did." Minato had to concur with Sun. He had been tasked to find Ruby but it all had been down to banking on mere possibilities. Thankfully, the odds favoured him.

"That's true… I wonder what they're doing here…" Sun commented back.

Minato stopped near his Personas who had been idling around and was immediately approached by the girl dressed primarily in pink, carrying a hammer.

"That was awesome! How did you do all that? What are these? Are these your semblances? How come they have their own semblances? Why did you sho-" She bounced from foot to foot at the sight of the Personas and their user's showcase of combat, and wouldn't have stopped talking had it not for the guy with long black hair wearing primarily green putting a hand over her mouth.

"Sorry… She can get really excited." The guy in green explained sheepishly.

The four girls were in their own world for a while but had gotten back to their feet. They kept huddling.

"That's…" It's the white-haired girl who spoke up. "Thanatos, isn't it?"

While Minato put full faith in Elizabeth's words, he couldn't help but stare while nodding at her to answer the question. Not only did she recognize Thanatos by sight, but she knew its name as well.

"I once met a lady in blue who can summon it too." She continued. "Must be the Elizabeth you mentioned earlier."

Elizabeth's story was true. Minato couldn't help but develop a slow smile. The four girls she had mentioned were standing in front of him.

"I knew it! I've seen it before too!" Ruby's eyes had been sparkling the whole time, as it turned out.

"And I've seen that gun, too." Blake gawked at the Evoker.

"I'd hate to interrupt you guys…" It was the old man and the kid. "But we still have that to take care of."

They looked at the staircase, especially at Lionheart.

"Seriously, I thought you'd killed him."

"Oh yeah…" It just hit Ruby. "What are we going to do with him?"

"I think it's best that he receives medical treatment." The kid spoke. "And then we'll go from there."

Minato immediately reached for the earpiece.

"Heather?"

_"Everything okay in there, Minato?"_ It took the Huntress on the other side of the call quite a bit to answer.

"Yeah."

_"What happened?"_

"A lot, but we're all in one piece." Although he chose to not comment in much detail, he put an inherent trust in Blake's words after seeing Orpheus' actions which had left Lionheart severely injured.

_"How about Lionheart? Is he okay?"_ Heather was still sceptical about Blake's tip. Nevertheless, she needed to know. There was a slight hint of terror in her voice.

"He needs medical attention." Minato looked at the headmaster's body laid on the stairs' landing.

_"Is he…"_ Heather paused, the feeling of dread kept on rising from within her chest. _"Is he dead?"_

"No. But he might not have much time." Minato didn't answer with much exclamation in his tone. Concerns from the person at the other end of the line was pretty much warranted, though.

_"Alright. Hang tight!"_ Nevertheless, it was enough to get the message through.

"What's the name of the other one?" As soon as Minato took his hand off the earpiece, another question was fired at him. Again, it was the white-haired girl. Her interest over the Personas was clear as day.

"This is Orpheus." Orpheus momentarily stopped playing the lyre and nodded at the white-haired girl.

"And that one is actually yours, since it looks so much like you?" The white-haired girl's eyes kept darting at the two Personas, despite having the person she was addressing standing next to her.

"They're both mine." Minato sighed. Though, he couldn't help but wonder why he was the only one whose Persona strongly resembled him.

"If the lady earlier was yours too…then that means you have three of them?" Not quite close to the real number. "How is that possible?" The white-haired girl finally turned her gaze towards Minato.

"I'll answer your questions…but this doesn't seem like the time and place to do it." To which, Minato answered such. His head was beginning to throb, hence the remark.

"He's right." The old guy came to them with the lantern in hand. "Come on kids, let's get outta here." Paramedics came rushing in, going straight to getting the helpless Lionheart off the stairs and putting him in a stretcher.

As if on cue, the Personas assumed their stand-by posture and hovered over Minato. With a nod from its user, they were both pulled back into his mind. Everyone watched the Personas curtly bowed their way before losing their tangibility and deforming into translucent shards of glass that evaporated into thin air.

After directing the paramedics to go inside the hall, Heather waited outside. Not long after they came out carrying Lionheart in a stretcher. A sheet covered him from the chest down. Shortly after, everyone else emerged out. Minato, the first one out of the bunch, immediately walked into her direction. He could see that she was holding different things in each hand. In one, the broken sword, sheathed and all. In the other, a sizable fragment of the blade that flew off when fighting Adam.

Heather handed the sheathed part first, then the fragment. "I found this after doing a little sweep around."

"Thanks."

Minato was already feeling apologetic when he first witnessed the sword breaking. Having found out that the weapon wasn't close to being put back together after he lined up the piece, he cast his eyes slightly downwards. He wasn't really a weapon romantic, and the sword didn't even come close to having the same level of versatility as Heather's or even Adam's weapon, but it was his regardless.

Part of the reason why he felt rather down was because of how much he would have to spend to get it fixed or get a new weapon altogether. The gloves and knuckles didn't hurt his pockets by much after he did some favours for the weapons merchant, but he was far from expecting the same level of kindness the next time.

Gears began spinning in his head. Perhaps he could run some missions, taking advantage of the fake license for as long as possible. Or he could simply just set up shop or apply as an employee at an establishment.

"Nooo! It's broken!" Minato was broken out of his stupor by Ruby who saw the broken equipment and yanked it away from his hands. She was struggling to keep her eyes from welling up the whole way. "Who did this to you…!?"

Minato couldn't help but feel a slight bemusement at the sight. Yes, there were cases of broken weapons, be it his or Junpei's or Aigis' or just about anybody's. None of them ever showed such seemingly exaggerated response, despite knowing how significant it was.

"She gets all geeky when it comes to weapons." It was Yang who had to explain the reason behind Ruby's sudden interest and showcase of sympathy. Minato chuckled lightly. The closest expert on armament he knew back then was a tie between Mitsuru and Aigis. The former for trying out many weapons before choosing to stick with thrusting swords, and the latter for having a knowledge on every weapon in history plus modern ones in her database.

"Take this arm." The prosthetic was primarily yellow, just like the gauntlet in Yang's other arm. Both pieces of equipment had a muzzle protruding from the side. It seemed similar in principle to Aigis' rotating cannons and the variety of attachments they could be swapped for. "She's been cooing at it since she first saw it."

"Crying over it isn't going to make it fix itself, Ruby." The girl in white deadpanned.

"I know. Sorry…" Ruby rubbed her eyes before handing both pieces back to their owner. "It's just a sword, but…poor thing."

"Fortunately, it's the only victim Adam claimed." Heather jumped into the conversation, letting out a giggle.

"Adam was here?" Yang perked up after hearing the name mentioned.

"We took him down. No worries." It was Sun who butted in this time.

Meanwhile, Heather spotted a man amongst the students, who she could safely assume was a Huntsman.

"You were looking for me, Qrow Branwen?" She spoke up, arms crossed.

The man, Qrow, heard his name in full and approached the Huntress. He replied the question with his own. "And you are?"

"Heather Shields." Heather pulled out her scroll, displaying the Huntress License. "My husband told me you visited when I was away." After putting the Scroll back, she gave a brief explanation.

"Ah...yeah." Qrow scratched the back of his head. "I ended up thinking you've gone missing or dead like every other Huntsmen I searched for."

"Would be, if it wasn't for this guy." Heather reached out and grasped Minato's shoulder. She then looked past Qrow, directing her gaze at gaping part of the hall's façade. "You're in town with students from out of the continent, looking for Huntsmen? And you didn't know the White Fang were attacking this place?"

"It's…kinda complicated." Qrow pulled out a flask from inside his jacket. "But yeah, we didn't know they were coming." After taking a sip of what assumedly was liquor, he put it back inside the jacket.

"Why were you looking for Huntsmen? Got a mission in the area?" Heather just couldn't help but ask. She had been wondering why someone would go as far as visiting her house.

Qrow sighed. "It's just to fish out some bandits, but the intel was bogus. I had to call it off."

"What about Lionheart?" Heather looked around warily before asking the question. "Blake told me you guys were on opposing sides."

Qrow took a minute to come up with answer. "Well, his position in all this is…kinda complicated. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it, either." After blurting out the best answer he could think of, his gaze met that of Minato's. He then decided to change the topic, so the Huntress wouldn't pry any further. "You fight like a seasoned Huntsman but look the same age as those kids over there…"

It could be taken as either a form of belittlement or praise. Yet, Minato didn't mind it, whatever the intention actually was.

"He's just a student I've personally taken under my wing since the academies go on break." At first, Minato was grateful to have Heather who had been covering him in these situations. But, as he slightly narrowed his eyes at the Huntress' nudge of an elbow, he slowly dug inside his pocket to take the Scroll out and showcased his license by projecting it right into Qrow's vision.

"Minato Arisato… You sound like a local but you go to Beacon, huh?" Qrow commented after taking a good look at presumably the part of the license stating the place where it was issued. After glancing to his right and left, he wore a rather perplexed look on his face. The student all by himself, save for the Huntress. "Where're your teammates?"

Minato really should've seen the question coming as soon as he was given the fake license, coupled with learning that students were divided to teams of four during education. Now, he must drum up an answer on a whim.

"They…died during the Fall of Beacon."

Even though it sounded generic, it was the most believable answer he could come up with. The lowering of his tone and gaze should hopefully help sell it.

"I'm…sorry to hear that." And it seemed to be working as Qrow nodded heavily, hunching himself over while shoving his hands into his pockets.

There was a bit of a tension in the air. Both parties couldn't think about what else to say.

"Anyway, thanks for helping us back there." Qrow decided to end the conversation, tapping Minato in the forearm as a form of appreciation before walking away.

Minato let out a subtle sigh as soon as Qrow was out of earshot. Heather understandably did the same.

"He's pretty well-known. Though, last time I heard, he was teaching at a primary combat school in Vale." Heather kept eyeballing the Huntsman who just converged with the bunch of students he was seen with. "…Not anymore, I guess." It was Heather's turn to shrug.

There was a piece of equipment still stuck in Minato's ear, which he took off and handed back to its owner. As Heather received it, something important hit her. She immediately reached for her own earpiece.

_"Sun, Ilia, Blake!"_ Without it, Heather would have to look around to spot the three teenage Faunus. They immediately jumped out from the crowd and came over in response.

"First of all, I'm gonna need those earpieces back, please..." Heather pointed at the one she was wearing. The three Faunus teenagers immediately removed theirs and put them on her open palm. She then placed them, along with the one Minato just returned, into a special case which went into a pocket in her trousers.

"So, debriefing time?" Sun crossed his arms.

"Actually, I don't think I need to say much." Heather had to pause for a little, thinking of what to say. "…Other than it's important to communicate with each other when we have to do things strategically."

Fortunately, having tactical approaches in combat wasn't something Minato ever had problems with. Still, he took the time to pay attention to Heather.

"I don't really consider the lack of it a fatal error but it depends on the person. For example, as long as you make it back in one piece if you work in Vacuo, then there's no problem. On the contrary, Atlesian Huntsmen are strict about these sorts of things. Straying off, let alone doing it without relaying to the others, may lose you connections, your job, or even your life."

It was to be expected that everybody had different methods, even though they all had went through the same type of education. Or the programs also differed in each academy, so long as they fit the four-year duration?

"How do you know so much? Are you from Atlas?" Blake raised the question almost immediately after Heather finished.

"Atlas, Mantle, it makes no difference. But I've worked with a bunch of them over the years." Heather waved it off. "Moved out to attend Haven since I find getting coerced into the military to not really be my style. But I go back every now and then since my parents live there." She gave everyone a little run-down on herself before anyone could inquire about it any further.

No further comments were made by everyone.

"Well, any more questions?" Heather rubbed her hands together, looking a little jumpy.

After looking at each other, everybody eyed Minato, who just shrugged it off. He found nothing wrong with the speech, and the operation. He already knew that communication is essential. Nevertheless, it was interesting to learn the contrast in the conduction of proceedings from one region to the other.

"We thwarted the White Fang's attempt to bring down the CCT Towers, and bagged Adam Taurus." Those were the major wins from the whole event, as Heather re-capped. "I declare this one a success!" She clapped following a subtle fist pump, which prompted everybody to follow. Cracks of smile and flashes of satisfaction crept into their faces.

"I'll go do the talking. You guys enjoy the rest of the evening." With that, Heather concluded the little meeting. Ilia, Blake, and Sun immediately walked off, presumably approaching their friends, while Minato stood by alongside Heather.

"Mr. Branwen!" Bringing her hands close to her mouth, Heather raised her voice, intending to call over the Huntsman in the distance.

"What?" Fortunately, it didn't take long for said Huntsman to respond.

"We have to give statements to the police and media first. It won't take long." Heather pointed her thumb at the commotion near the entrance.

"Ah, yeah, right…" Qrow seemed rather reluctant to do it, but chose to do it anyway. They were the only licensed Huntsmen around.

"Be right back." Heather left with a wink to walk alongside Qrow towards the crowd, leaving Minato just standing there.

The only pain Minato was feeling was the throbbing in his head. But even that had been gradually subsiding due to having a Persona perform a recovery in the forefront of his mind. While he probably should have look for somewhere to sit down for a bit, having people constantly intruding his personal space made it a bit difficult to do so, until now.

Weirdly enough, there were no benches in the surroundings. Minato had to make do with the stairs leading up to the hall. After all the chaos, he could finally find the time to put on the music from his own device. He had always been content with hanging in the background, letting the others talk while he observed. It was no different here. He watched Ruby and the others converse with excitement inside their own circle. The lantern which was initially in Yang's hand had been left hanging by her hip. There was no help but wondering what was for. After a while, he diverted his gaze to Heather and Qrow addressing some people. The former did the talking for the most part with the latter just hunching over and digging out the flask to have a drink.

It wasn't long before the two Huntsmen finished addressing the curious. Minato let his earphones hang around his neck and turned off the music player and got up, walking to the middle of the square where everybody had been hanging out in one way or the other.

"Hey, how about you come visit our house some time?" Qrow grabbed Minato by his shoulder, stopping him from walking for a moment. He looked ahead to the group of students in the distance as he continued speaking. "Looks like they're interested in you…and we'd also like to repay you for helping us."

Minato saw no reason to refuse the proposition, simply deducing the interest over him as a given. "Sure." Until recently, there was only one person on his list of contacts: Heather Shields. After the little exchange, there was a new entry: Qrow Branwen.

"The tower's still standing, meaning the comms are up." Qrow extended his hand, which Minato shook in kind. "Keep in touch."

The students were walking back towards the entrance but stopped midway, just nearby where Minato was standing.

"We haven't properly introduced ourselves!" Judging by how they seemed to be rallying around her, Minato deduced Ruby to be the leader of the collective.

"Ruby Rose…" Ruby lifted her right hand in almost a saluting gesture but slightly bent her knees while doing it.

"I'm Weiss Schnee. Nice to meet you." Next was the white-haired girl with a vested interest in the Personas.

"Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's big sis." Not only did the two supposed sisters look different, but their names didn't indicate them being fraternal sisters. Adopted, perhaps?

"Jaune Arc." The first thing Minato noticed about the blond guy wearing armour was how much taller he was.

"Nora Valkyrie!" Quite arguably the most energetic between all of them. The fact that she was lugging a hammer which looked difficult to control made her deceptively powerful.

"Lie Ren." If there was one thing Minato could tell about Ren, it was being somewhat of a polar opposite to Nora. Plus, there was of similarity between them. Not quite like talking to a reflection, but there seemed to be similar traits.

"My name is…Oscar Pine. Nice to meet you, um…" The boy's voice sounded different, as if there was a sudden shift in mannerisms.

"Minato Arisato." They hadn't caught the full name, so a reiteration was needed. "No need to be so formal."

"Well, there's so much to talk about but it's getting late, so…we'll meet again?" Ruby looked at the clock in her Scroll.

"Sure." It wasn't difficult to accept the proposition since they both shared the same sentiments. "Just find me in town."

"Or…we could keep in touch." Before the group left, the two people of completely opposing colours exchanged contacts. In fact, Red was generous enough to give out the contacts of all of her friends, which also included Sun, and a guy the bluenette had never met named Neptune Vasilias.

Though they had only just known each other, it appeared the group had an inkling that they could at least feel easy around Minato. It would take more to find out whether they would go past being acquaintances, however.

"See you 'round!" Ruby waved her hand, with the others following the gesture as they continued walking towards the entrance of the academy.

Apparently, Heather had been watching the exchange taking place with a grin that subconsciously kept getting wider. She cleared her throat after Minato spotted her in the distance and glanced her head towards the entrance.

"So, what are you gonna do, now that you've found Ruby?" The walk back to their stakeout spot in the nearby luxury hotel was a quiet one until Heather initiated the conversation.

Minato pondered about it for a minute. The plan hadn't even crossed his mind at all. On the other hand, Ruby had stated the intent to meet again.

"Catch up and go from there." Supposedly, it could happen in the not so distant future.

"Would they believe you?" Heather eyed Minato sceptically. "I mean, I bet you've introduced yourself, but…stranger danger. You know how it is…"

"They recognized one of my Personas…" Minato pointed out. "I'll take that as a good start."

"Persona? That's the name of those summons of yours?" Heather tilted her head to the side.

Minato nodded, then silence overtook. He looked up to the night sky, and the brightly-lit shattered moon. Though it seemed improbable at first, it was a marvellous sight regardless.

"Are you Minato Arisato?" If it was the Huntress working as hotel security approaching the two, Minato would've assumed he was in trouble because the Student License was discovered to be fake. Thankfully, it was just a regular employee walking up to them as soon as they entered the hotel. Though, the uniform being more on the formal side compared to the receptionists, for example, gave the impression that the man sat quite high in the hierarchy.

In any case, Minato found it safe to just nod at the inquiry.

"We'd like you to accept a little gift from us." The hotel employee gave Minato an envelope. Inside, as it turned out, was something similar to a card, about the size of a Lien bill. "You may stay here and use all facilities and services for up to two weeks, free of charge. All you have to do is pick a room."

Minato didn't know the line of work was that romanticized for him to receive such a proposition, or maybe the people were just that generous. Despite having no intention to make others' lives hard in expense of his, he found the offer hard to refuse, as he was starting to run low on Lien.

"Why don't you take the room I've booked?" Heather suggested. "I've paid for it up-front so somebody has to stay in it, and that's not gonna be me. I have a husband and a daughter who're probably worried sick right now."

There was nothing wrong with the reasoning, which made it even easier for Minato to decide.

"I'll keep using the room already booked under her name, please."

"Okay, I'll make the adjustments…" The hotel employee took out a Scroll much larger than his and began tapping his fingers. "…and done. You will be listed as the room's main tenant starting tomorrow, Mr. Arisato."

A skim at the form from top to bottom confirmed what the employee just said.

"Please sign here." There was a blank space in the bottom of the form, and Minato reached for it with the pen-like device in his hands. After writing down his full name in signature form, he handed the device back to the employee.

"Thank you." The employee kindly received it. "You may use the key you're currently holding but it appears the original key is still in the room." He added.

"You didn't take the key out when you left the room?" Heather's head perked up and immediately looked at Minato. Up until that point, she was busy with her own Scroll.

"Heat of the moment, no time." Minato gave a brief answer. "Sorry." He still found himself guilty for not doing something that simple, nevertheless.

"No, no, I didn't mean to chastise you. I was just surprised…" Heather realized the response was quite unwarranted after remembering what might be in the room. "Unless you consider donuts and coffee to be valuables, I don't think anything would be stolen."

"As I said earlier, you can keep using the original key, but if you want to swap them by tomorrow, that's fine too." The employee reiterated after witnessing the brief exchange between the two.

"I see…" Minato comprehended.

"Then, enjoy your stay, Mr. Arisato." The employee bowed, then walked away, leaving the two to just stand in the now quiet lobby.

"Well…" Heather shrugged. "You just got a lodging upgrade! Free too! Lucky…" She lightly punched Minato in the forearm.

It was quite late, but they could use a supper. Therefore, they headed to the hotel's restaurant. Sadly, since the freebies were available starting the next day, they would have to pay for it. Thankfully, Heather got it covered. Still, Minato decided to order the cheaper ones. It would be a different case if he was the one paying.

After the meal, they sat down for a while as visitors came and go.

"Let's see… We were on a stakeout, then I went off to meet the militia from Menagerie, then we raided Haven, arrested Adam Taurus, and saved the CCT Tower, though I almost died again, for the lack of a better word." Heather did yet another re-cap of the whole evening. "What a night, huh?" She spoke again, just so that the conversation didn't get stale. The only reply she got was a chuckle. Even so, she couldn't help but feel content and thankful for having a capable person like Minato working with her.

"I guess it's time to go." They both got up after the bill was paid.

"I'll walk you home." Minato immediately offered. "Your family would love to see you come back safely."

Heather paused for a second before coming up with her own reply.

"Alright. Wanna drop your stuff first? I'll wait here." There was no response, leaving Heather slumped into one of the lobby's sofa as Minato walked into a lift.

After letting the sheathed broken sword rest against the room's wall, Minato returned to the lobby and began walking Heather out of the hotel. Of course, this time he didn't forget to lock the doors and removed the key before coming back down.

The walk was silent. They went through some of the city's crowded areas but their lips remained shut. Only when they've arrived at the neighbourhood in the Huntress was living in did they start conversing again.

"What makes you say that?" Heather couldn't help but feel curious at the sudden act of chivalry by the guy who supposedly looked bemused at almost anything he faced.

"I'm an orphan." Minato caught on with the question and immediately answered. "Lost my parents to a car crash when I was 6." He made sure to check if cars actually existed in this fantastical world before saying it. There was a lack of them around the area in general, other than the ones which had the hotel's logo on them parked, leading to the conclusion that they were company-operated.

"That's…" Heather was at a loss for words. "I'm sorry to hear that. Must've been hard for you." She cast her gaze down.

Even though it had only been a few days since they first met, Heather felt closer to Minato than before. On the other hand, despite the lack of voices ringing inside his head, Minato felt the bond between them getting stronger. Whilst the bonds came with the boon of added power, they were all genuine. The bonds he had formed were the cornerstone in his overall improvement as a person.

Shortly after that, they arrived at Heather's home. The door was opened as soon as she knocked. The daughter, Talia, immediately jumped to her mother's embrace.

"Mommy!"

"Talia... It's late and you haven't gone to bed?" Heather picked up her daughter.

"I was waiting for you to come home." Talia immediately buried her face into her mother's shoulder.

"Well…I'm home." The embrace of the mother tightened.

"Welcome home, mommy." And it would appear that Talia wouldn't want to let go anytime soon.

The sight made a smile dance on Minato's lips. It was like Maiko all over again. Difference was this family didn't show any signs of crumbling anytime soon.

Also, compared to last time, Talia seemed to have opened up to the bluenette. "Good evening, mister." She waved at him.

"Evening…" To which Minato waved back.

In the meantime, the husband, Kaelan, came to the door and greeted Heather as well. "Welcome back." It was Heather's turn to fall into an embrace, that of her husband's.

"Thanks for taking care of her." Kaelan sighed in relief before expressing the gratitude. He went back inside after letting go of the embrace.

"Well, thanks for walking me home. I'll see you around?" Heather extended her fist.

"Yeah." Minato extended his, letting both fists bump with each other.

"Good night, mister!" Talia waved enthusiastically at Minato. All he did was turn back and wave at the family before heading to his new lodging for the next two weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold, the longest chapter I've ever written!
> 
> It took a while for me to introduce just about everybody else mentioned in the tags, but here they are. 
> 
> This took way, way too long to finish, because there's a lot more going on than I've outlined. Nevertheless, I'm proud of this. I'm not sure if I feel I've gone from strength to strength, but I always try to find ways to keep improving my writing. Anyway, sorry for the long wait. I did a lot of research before putting the ideas and converting them.
> 
> This just about ends V5 in RWBY, in which, as I've gathered, there seems to be a consensus among fans that it was...not the best of the bunch. All I can say is that I understand where they're coming from. My opinion on it doesn't matter much.
> 
> As we wait for V8, I'm still thinking of whether I should stay in course with the show's main plot or divert it a bit. People are saying a lot of things about this show, good and bad. I just hope the crew can do a good job of picking up where they left off in V7.
> 
> Remember when I asked about weapon ideas? Well, it was actually for Minato. The reason I chose him as the centre is because he's the only one who can use multiple weapon classes, as seen in FES. As such, it wasn't difficult to determine what his RWBY-styled weapon would be like. Feel free to drop in ideas for a suitable name!
> 
> All in all, I hope this was worth the wait as to me this was worth spending my free time. We're still in the middle of a pandemic so I hope you guys stay safe and stick to the set protocols while enjoying life.


	9. Unraveling

Holding an umbrella borrowed from the hotel above his head, Minato found himself standing at the entrance of the Market District. With the sleeves of his shirt rolled up and a couple of buttons undone, he pocketed the Scroll which had previously rested in the other hand and walked right in, paying no mind to glances of the populace. Past all the scent of spices, perfume, and alcohol was a booth with a mannequin left to the mercy of the heavens. After pulling the umbrella shut, he stepped through clear tarp hanging from the roof of said establishment.

The small building hid the true gem of the store, a vast variety of goods being showcased which redeemed the lack of space. All the tags stuck on each item had numbers either plastered on or simply written beside ones already scratched off. To top it off, they all carried the labels of their manufacturers.

He exited the establishment not too long after, holding bag containing the good stuff as the showers maintained its intensity. He didn't really care whether the items he paid a good portion of his already tight budget for were in conjunction with the current trends or not, only that he needed something else in the wardrobe to fall back to as he decided the Gekkoukan High uniform should go to the wash bag.

He slipped out of the school outfit and into a robe which style reminded him of the Kyoto school trip, and the part in which he got trapped inside a giant icicle for a whole night largely due to his own misfortune. He managed to contain a mild shudder upon reading the words "hot spring" in the hotel's list of facilities, but soon found the response to be unwarranted.

Instead of time allocation for separate genders, the baths for men and women had been walled off from each other. It allowed him to soak in without the looming threat of getting frozen to death. A huge relief, which he let out as soon as all but his head became submerged in warm water.

It was to be expected that the news of an attempted attack on Haven Academy would headline news casts and bulletins, as well as reaching the ears of the whole city of Mistral's population over the course of the day. Perhaps it too had been heard over the kingdom's territory spanning from near the north end to the south end of Remnant. But with the communications system not performing at full capacity across all facets of life, it might take a while for the whole world to hear.

Each article seemingly had their own twists to the story, but a couple of things remained consistent: The White Fang recognized as the perpetrators; and the Faunus militia coming all the way from Menagerie led by Ghira Belladonna as the main force in the counteractive effort. They didn't omit the fact that there happened to be licensed Huntsmen and students participating. But thanks to Heather helping set the record straight, the credit went to the Faunus.

Speaking of the Huntress, she had been found in front of a workshop in which workers were seen working on various pieces mostly made of glass.

"Ah, hey." The swiping blue hair of his couldn't have been easier to spot, having been around it for a few days.

Said bluenette saw no harm in saying hi and approached her.

"I take it the whole uniform's in the wash?" He would've looked like every other Mistralian, had it not been for the white short sleeve tee tucked in with the leather belt taken from said uniform around his waist, instead of untucked and secured with usually a sash.

He hummed at Heather's observation, all the while his vision fixated on a cardboard box being handed to her.

"We're putting on new windows today." She lugged said box, letting the piece of rope securing it in place rest on her shoulders. "Been putting it on the back burner for a while so I figured this was a good time to do it." She continued rather sheepishly.

With Huntsmen supposedly being one of the highest-earning occupation in Remnant, it left him to wonder how she ended up living in the lower levels of the city, let alone inside a house which had visible cracks on the wall and planks of wood covering the gaps from which natural light could illuminate the interior.

"I was planning on calling you over after the work's done." They began walking out of the establishment, heading towards the exit of the Market District. "Since you're already here, would you like to come with me?"

Minato knew enough about Heather to understand what she was on about, but he couldn't help but raise his visible eyebrow at her wording. Her eyes widened slightly as she came to the realization.

"I mean, to my house." She fanned with her free hand, letting out a slight chuckle. "It's important."

Figuratively, he could rely on an acquaintance for a while. Therefore, it didn't take him much convincing to accept the invitation in the first place.

The wooden planks covering the openings from which a man can slip through had been removed and set out to the side. Inside the cardboard box were sheets of glass with polished wood fitted around them. They had been measured to size, allowing Kaelan to simply place them into said gaps in the wall. Plaster had previously been applied over the cracks on the wall prior to the windows being put on. A little spray and wipe of the new windows further enhanced the appearance of the house. Far cry from luxurious, but it looked the most presentable out of the bunch.

"Can you bring those over?" Minato had helped holding the windows in position as they were being secured in. With that done, Heather pointed at a collection of plants inside pots laid at the side, put either inside contraptions made of wire to be suspended from the ceiling or on the newly-mounted window sills out of recycled wooden planks, including the low-growing shrubs carrying her namesake.

Soon after, the showers stopped and the dark clouds went scarce, allowing sunlight to sneak through. At the host's discretion, he stepped into the house, and immediately noticed the abundance of space previously nonexistent as he took his seat on a sofa. That, coupled with the windows allowing natural light to go through, gave the impression of a much bigger house even though it didn't look so from outside.

"Been spending the past day tidying the place up…" The Huntress noticed her guest's darting eyes as she walked into the kitchen.

On the other side of the room were photographs inside frames hung on the wall and rested on a low cabinet, with a translucent screen secured to the wall and a shelf chuck full of books right next to it. Talia lied on a rug right in front of the screen currently showing a news broadcast with colouring pencils and a book in hand.

The bluenette's attention towards the broadcast broke when the fragrance emitted by a cup of tea set on the table teased his sense of smell.

"Thanks." She saw his lips curling ever so slightly, sitting down on a sofa opposite of the table, holding her own cup of tea.

Silence took over, both pair of eyes fixated on the news. Although Minato repeatedly cast his gaze somewhere else, his hands remained in the pocket except for the times when he reached for the drink.

A few minutes later, she too had enough of watching the news and cast her gaze at the person sitting across the table.

"Do you need something from me?" Recalling the part where she planned to call him over, Minato asked the question.

"Now that I have the time to collect myself and kick back, I've been thinking about a lot of things…" Heather took another sip before putting her cup down.

But suddenly, a ringing voice, followed by vibrations. Everything paused. Well, not really, because it didn't stop time. Just halted her from talking. The wooden table, where she had put her Scroll down, would have amplified both.

It came from his pocket. The cause, a call, from none other than Qrow Branwen. Heather widened her eyes, mouth slightly agape as she saw the Huntsman photograph on the see-through screen.

"Go ahead. Put it on loudspeaker." The instruction came quickly, and Minato tapped the button to accept the incoming call and the loudspeaker button, in that order. Her command did make him wonder about the things she said earlier.

"Hello?" Minato began. At the same time, anticipation started building up. He lined up his Scroll alongside Heather's on the table.

_"Hey, kid. How're you holding up?"_ The man on the other of the call sounded a little groggy and drowsy. In his defense, a shut-eye under that weather in that time of day would feel great.

"I'm alright." Minato leaned slightly in, all the while his hands remained buried in his pockets. "Have you been well, Mr. Branwen?" He did a little mental exercise to prevent fumbling or even butchering names earlier in the day, with the abundance of new entries in his list of contacts.

_"Pretty much, yeah…"_ Qrow still sounded a little groggy. Nothing of a problem, though.

"Can I help you?" As Minato said this, he noticed Heather's gaze slightly intensifying.

_"The kids are cooking a lot of stuff for dinner tonight, and they're gonna need some help finishing all of them."_ Qrow went straight for it. _"So, I'm thinking of following you up on that offer…"_

"I see…" In a flash, Minato registered Qrow's intention, and nodded in response. "Sure, if it's not any trouble for you."

_"Look, they're eager to meet you again after what happened at Haven. I'm just playing the middleman."_ Qrow followed that one with a light chuckle. _"But seriously, we've got a lot to unravel."_ Then uttered said line with steel.

"The feeling's mutual." Minato drew and exhaled a soft sigh, matching the response with just as much assertiveness.

_"And don't forget to bring Heather over as well."_ Heather perked up with the name drop. She almost attempted to cut in but chose to hold herself back.

Minato tilted his neck up, to see Heather giving him a thumb up. With that, he could deliver a confident enough response.

"I'll pass it on." A brief, concise reply that some may consider too energy-preserving.

_"Great to hear that."_ Qrow could sense the amount of trust coming from the other end of the line, feeling content with how the call had went on. _"I'll send you the address."_

"Thanks. We'll be there." Minato got beat to hang up the call as it ended. He leaned back, blowing a sigh of relief. The thought of it immediately crept into his mind.

As he wondered how and what the course of the night would be like, the communication device vibrated, pushing a notification to the forefront of the interface. A tap on it revealed its contents, a blank message with an attachment containing Qrow's address in the city.

"What?" Only then he noticed the pair of deep purple irises from the person across the table staring at him.

"So that's what you two were talking about back at Haven?" After giving herself time to connect the dots, Heather finally spoke up. To which she received nothing but a small, yet affirming nod.

She now knew two things about the bluenette's character traits. Firstly, his contentment with listening most of the time as opposed to talking.

"I gotta say, for a quiet guy, you hit it off with people fast." Secondly, as of the passing moment, that.

"It just sort of happened…" Minato deadpanned. Not the first time someone pointed that out about him. Ryoji and Junpei were subjected to the same response when they found out he had connections with people across all ages, in varying facets of life.

While he wouldn't go as far as sounding it out, it admittedly was the voices ringing in his head that slowly opened the windows to his heart which had long been shut. Yes, his quiet demeanour – he had blissfully accepted that part of him – remained. But, in his own words, he started feeling alive again after getting used to the opposite for the longest time. From the kid in the verge of getting into a broken home, to the lone storyteller who didn't have much time left in the living world, to the religious man drinking his problems away, to the opportunistic yet dubious businessman, they all played a part in building the foundations that made him as a person.

"Here, mister."

He hadn't noticed Talia sitting beside him, extending her hand to give out a piece of paper. His lips subconsciously curled around the corners as it changed hands. She immediately plopped down from the sofa and jumped straight onto her mother's lap.

When it came to arts, he would rather practice it for recreational purposes. Nor was he an art connoisseur. But it absolutely would not get in the way of appreciating the drawing.

That of himself, sitting in the usual posture, complete with the earphones and music player around his neck. Some drawings could be difficult to even digest. But this, despite not being the most polished in the world, could be well understood just by first glance.

"Thank you, Talia." He couldn't help but smile at the little girl in appreciation. Art curators would most likely turn it down, but that was beside the point. She had the spirit, which, at such a young age, took more value than the end product.

It reminded him of a drawing – a photorealistic one – of Junpei, found in a sketch book given to him as one of the reminders that he had others fighting alongside him and from within.

"She's been into drawing ever since she discovered pencil and paper." The mother reached out for the colouring pencils and notebook bundled together and handed it to the daughter, turning a blank page and scribbled on it in an instant. "Somebody would just be sitting there and about ten to twenty minutes later she'd finished drawing them…"

"Mister, can I ask you a question?" Talia cut in, lowering the book just enough to peek over it, eyeing the bluenette with her eyes flashing.

"What is it?" It wouldn't be wise to deny her the opportunity in such a welcoming atmosphere.

"Why do you cover your face? Do you only have one eye?" It came out ever so effortlessly, as expected from a kid.

"Talia…!" Heather immediatly pulled her daughter close and lightly pulled her cheeks. "It's not polite to ask that question to a guest…"

Seeing the mother-daughter interaction before him gave way for a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Perhaps a small giggle too.

"It's okay… I can see just fine." He bobbed his head, letting his bangs open up a gap big enough for the hosts to gaze at the other eye in its entirety. "As to why… Well, I just like it this way." Followed by a rather simple answer, because he really had never thought of it before. The gap closed up as he finished talking, and Talia returned to hiding her face behind the book, picking up a differently-coloured pencil.

A few minutes flew by before Talia started to yawn, and she had all but dropped the stationery onto the table.

"Oh, right." Heather looked at the clock and realized the time had come for her daughter to take a rest. "I'll be back." She picked her up and carried her to the back, presumably to a bedroom.

Some twenty minutes later, she returned, while carrying a jug with which she poured tea to both cups.

"Speaking of which…" The voice coming out of the screen had been lowered enough so they could continue the conversation without any considerable disturbance. She sat back down and exhaled a long sigh as she talked again.

"Hm?" Although hot, he slurped the tea straight away, wondering what she meant.

"Remember what I said in the beginning, that I've been thinking about some things?" Her posture tensed up slightly as she let her cup of tea rest in her lap. "Well, one of them is what if Qrow Branwen wants to talk to us."

She lifted a hand just in case he wanted to deliver a response. Once she knew he wouldn't cut her off, which would be uncharacteristic on his part, she continued.

"Don't get me wrong. I've been thinking about going to see him in person." She pouted between sentences. "But I planned on doing it privately, like a one-on-one talk..."

"How famous is he?" The small explanation he received back at Haven made it a compelling case. But it could also be trivial to some.

Before answering, she grabbed a jar containing some sweets from a shelf above her head and offered him some. After each of them had taken one, she put it on the table and resumed the conversation.

"He's a highly respected person in this business. An idol for many, which I'm sure includes a lot of students. She appeared to have never elaborated that part, something which could be disastrous in hindsight. "Naturally, it's earned him a lot of friends, and connections."

And then, she noticed the subtle change in his looks, as he cast his eyes down ever so slightly before coming back to the usual state. Admittedly, figuring out his thoughts had been a rather interesting challenge. She couldn't help but wonder if he had ever caused trouble for everyone else with his demeanour.

"I see what you mean..." It didn't take him long to put two and two together. "But I don't think it makes any difference." And came to that conclusion just as quickly.

In the middle of chewing another piece of sweets, she only managed to respond with a hum. Her pupils slightly dilated as well.

"Mr. Branwen is still going to ask you about me regardless." The possibility had lingered in his mind since she told her to show that license. "There's no other choice but to come clean about it." One the other hand, he never had to fake anything before. The bartender at that night club turned a blind eye as long as he didn't cause any trouble, which he obliged. He just waltzed in, still donning the school uniform, before bringing the drink ordered by that alcoholic monk.

"You're right." She cast her gaze down and let her head hung. "Maybe I shouldn't have made you that license… Maybe I shouldn't have told you to show it to his face…"

Again, he wanted to stick to the original plan of using it for just a short while. Gears spun inside his head as she became silent, taking it all in.

"I'll do it on my own." A couple of minutes later, he came to a decision. She jerked her head up in response, eyes widened. "They're more likely to suspect me doing it myself." The first step would likely be to confront the fake's owner before anything else. But, he had another reason to do it.

Heather Shields, a mother and a wife, had been away from home for possibly a good while until very recently, and one Minato Arisato wouldn't want her to be taken away, even though it could be said that she brought this one upon herself.

"So I'll just have to play the part of a 'little did she know' Huntress?" She pretty much knew what her role would be as soon as he proposed the idea.

"And hope I don't get too severely punished out of good grace." Despite saying this, he had been mentally preparing for whatever the repercussions might be ever since he received the forged document.

She sighed. The possibility of talking him out of that act of selflessness vanished when she looked him in the eye. No frowns, no smiles, nothing. She would have to take his word for it.

"Alright."

With her resignation to the whole thing, something popped into her mind. Part of the things she had been mulling over lately.

"That reminds me…" She straightened her posture. "We haven't really gone over what happened inside the hall back then." And then changed the topic.

His visible eyebrow ever so slightly raised. It somehow looked amusing, even though she knew the covered half of his face had nothing wrong on it.

"What did Blake mean about Lionheart not being on our side? Why was he injured and unconscious when it's all over?"

Two valid questions. Minato took a minute to think about the answers.

"I haven't spoken to Blake, Ruby, Mr. Branwen, or anyone else about it…" He started by addressing the first question. It had been a good couple of days since then but he didn't mind letting them collect themselves. Although, the conversation with Qrow earlier basically told him to get on with it while still hot. "Lionheart aimed his weapon at me, and Orpheus got there before he fired a shot." Then he moved to the second question. It sounded too brief but nothing else really happened regarding the confrontation with the academy's headmaster.

She would still be wondering who this "Orpheus" might be, if not for the image in which a huge Grimm getting incinerated from the inside by the robotic puppet whose haircut and face bore a striking resemblance to him flashing in her mind.

It wasn't just Orpheus. The dual-wielding lady on a horse, the mythological warrior wielding a hammer conducting electricity, and the lady bard whose strokes of the string instrument produced touches of freezing temperatures looked impressive on their own.

Even the boy produced his own wonders. The healing touch, for instance - which she had experienced twice - added to the fact that he could produce the elements out of the tip of his own fingers and utilize them in more ways than one.

In Remnant, one could have a special ability but not the other. And she had never heard of someone being able to just change it on the fly.

It lead her to a conclusion, that this boy sitting in front of her might just come straight out of the folk tales of old, or some crazy author's fantasies.

"I…I see…" She simply mumbled to the explanation while indulging her own musings. "That could've killed him." Still, something of that much power could have been lethal against humans, regardless of Aura pool.

"How's his condition?" The concerns of whether or not he just killed a man had been resting at the back of his mind as well. He felt Orpheus didn't do anything too bad despite its perceived aggression but anything could happen.

"I checked this morning and he's still sleeping, but his vitals are stable." The two setences coming out of her mouth allowed him to sigh in relief. "So he's gonna have to stay for a while." Then she continued.

Although, that wasn't all, as she continued, perhaps sensing the next question coming her way.

"The police told me they'd like to question him once he's in a better state. Hopefully with some Huntsmen assistance."

The soft requirement of having Huntsmen aside, so far it looked like the police actually had reasons to exist, despite somehow being placed under the Huntsmen on the food chain. Although, from what Minato had read so far, Huntsmen, police, and military existed under equal footing in Atlas, where Heather was born and raised.

"...Which is why you wanted to see Mr. Branwen." Anyhow, Ruby's group, which included Qrow, got there first, despite not knowing about the White Fang coming right behind them. They should know something, he figured.

"Precisely." Heather knew this too, and flicked her fingers in agreement.

The clock ticked by, and before they knew it, almost an hour had elapsed since they sat in the living room.

"Anything else?" Although he didn't mind staying for longer, it was still a private space which belonged to a family. And he'd rather not keep intruding.

"For now, that'll be all." Guess the things she had been mulling included things which didn't need his presence to address.

"Then I'll be going. Thanks for the drink." With that, the cue dropped to get up and end his visit.

"Thanks for helping me with the window and the flowers, too." She walked him to the door and twisted the lever. As soon as the door open, cold breeze raced into and around them. It hadn't been hot and dry like the typical summer all day but it felt refreshing regardless. "I'm going to swing by Haven Academy before going to Mr. Branwen's place. Let's meet at your hotel." She proposed the meeting point as she let the guest through.

"Sounds good." He nodded and waved her goodbye. "See you later."

With the lack of Huntsmen in town, policemen had been out in vital areas of the city. An action taken at the advice of none other than Heather, as it turned out. One officer noted that she pretty much ripped into the captain after detaining Adam Taurus for not immediately taking action as soon as Huntsmen presence in town dropped to minimal, citing the whole force's failure in maintaining public order and safety.

The same officer also said that police and Huntsmen coexisting shouldn't exclusively be an Atlesian thing, thereby seeing the rationales in Heather's little spat with the head of police, with both parties perceived to be friends. He also hoped that it would lead to bigger strides that saw more cooperation opportunities. But for the moment, they just had to focus on the intended purpose.

After using up the down time to just get some rest, get cleaned up, and get some grub, Minato got down to the hotel's lobby and plopped into a sofa, his eyes glued to the Scroll, watching footage of coverage from the latest Vytal Festival, in which Beacon Academy and the neighbouring city of Vale acted as the host. Although, he had steered largely clear of the fighting tournament aside from the opening ceremony and opted to watch stuff like the happenstances around it, the festival spilling down to the city of Vale, and episodes of a special series in which teams went on their first mission under the supervision of seasoned Huntsmen.

One of the more interesting special episodes featured a team from Haven Academy going on a program with the Vale Police Department. While other teams got assigned to all sorts of activities involving crude labour and Grimm somewhere out there, this group of four got to work well within the confines of the city walls, right among the citizens of Vale.

The team consisted of, in no particular order, Sage Ayana, Scarlet David, Neptune Vasilias, and Sun Wukong. Together, they're referred to as Team SSSN - pronounced Sun - with the latter leading the way, predictably.

Perhaps a little more creativity wouldn't hurt in the team naming department. But no problem of any sorts, if looked at through the lens of a guy who had only been in the world for a week tops.

The episode might portray one of the less common assignments on top of being labeled special, but judging by the team's mostly nonplussed faces throughout, they probably didn't expect most of police work to be rather mind-numbing. Patrols, stops-and-searches, traffic management, investigations, arrests, interrogations, security details; for a bunch of people who put their lives on the line to absorb as many knowledge as possible while also learning to look presentable while doing it, those would feel rather menial.

Regular people just didn't offer much resistance compared to Grimm in that regard, aside from the White Fang and members of a circle centered around the deceased charismatic last king of the Valean underworld, Roman Torchwick.

Still, it didn't seem to dampen the spirit of Sun and Neptune. They got particularly jumpy and energetic when it came to investigations and acts of apprehension, to the extent of pulling out props like the fake moustache and aviator sunglasses to look the part right next to police working in a tropical paradise full of temptation and sins.

The other special episode that caught his attention covered events in the opposite extreme, featuring Nebula Violette, Dew Gayl, Gwen Darcy, Octavia Ember. Together, they made up Team NDGO.

Tasked to protect a hillside village all but flattened to the ground, they had to work on the double to fend off Grimm after Grimm while overseeing the villagers' preparation to leave the area and never look back. It did help that the Huntsman assigned to watch over them knew where to hit, and taught the students about it.

However, the abundance of action started taking a toll on them, the Huntsman included. Fortunately, as preparations concluded, backup arrived. Four guys, all wearing medieval armour. Name designation CRDL - pronounced Cardinal - led by Cardin Winchester. Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark completed the many ensemble from the hosting academy, Beacon.

The mission became a joint venture of two teams as they escorted the villagers out of the city and to the designated pickup point located in a vast patch of land downhill, where airships waited.

Again, Grimm presence necessitated the extra help as they fought through the beasts coming at them from all sides. The girls' finesse complimented by the guys' raw power helped them reach their destination as night began to fall. The villagers were then transported into their own patch of land complete with adequate housing inside the wall.

All in all, the Vytal Festival seemed to be a time of the year when everybody could go to the streets and have fun despite the looming threat of Grimm, acts of terrorism, and such. The unprecedented attack on Beacon Academy had seemingly changed all that.

These factors made him wonder just how a celebration of cultural diversity turned into the single worst disaster since the Great War, according to the news. Was it the fighting tournament going out of hand thus inciting fear amongst spectators, the citizens' apprehension towards heavy presence of armed personnel from up north, or an infiltration that collapsed the entire system from the inside?

Whatever it may be, Minato admitted that it had been executed to the nearest of perfection, considering the aftermath. It made the attempt on bringing down Haven sounded like a thing drawn up in a hurry. Then again, without the Faunus militia, it could've been an uphill battle despite Heather's confidence in his capability to even the numbers.

As the second episode ended, in came Heather, who immediately waved to him. Night had fell, which meant it was time. They walked out of the hotel and headed into the address Qrow had given earlier.

"This should be the place." Heather stole a glance at the huge double door they just stopped in front of.

A masculine voice from the other side answered the knock. Then the door opened, revealing a tall, blond man.

"Oh…hey, new acquaintance. Wasn't expecting you to visit so soon." Jaune looked rather perplexed at the sight of the bluenette standing on the doorstep, on top of not recognizing the older woman in tow. "Um, who are you?"

"You're Jaune, right?" Heather pronounced the name in the same dialect as a foreign exchange student Minato had formed an unbreakable bond with. "I'm Heather, the Huntress looking after this guy." She laid an open hand on her chest, introducing herself.

"It's been a long time since someone pronounced my name like that…" Jaune scratched his cheek, smiling sheepishly. "Nice to meet you, Ma'am…"

Heather pressed her shoulder against the other door, eyeing Jaune frivolously. Her lips curled, apparently struggling to not develop into a grin.

"Now, is there a Qrow Branwen here, handsome?" The smile got wider and wider, and the compliment caused flush to creep along Jaune's cheeks. A bead of sweat came out of Minato's visible forehead, eyeing Heather while trying to not develop a frown at the same time.

"Jaune, who's there?" A loud, feminine, and youthful voice from the background interrupted them. Then said person joined Jaune.

"Oh…" Ruby's posture momentarily stiffened before greeting the guests. "Hey there! You're here just in time for dinner." She shoved Jaune out of the way, who proceeded to return back inside.

"Evening…" Minato returned the greeting with a curt nod. "I hope we're not bothering."

"Come on in, make yourself at home." Ruby shrugged it off, and then stepped aside to let the guests in. She looked past the bluenette and to the Huntress. "And you're…Heather!"

"Yep!" Heather approached Ruby and shook her hand with enough force that lifted her a couple of inches off the ground. "So, you're the girl Minato's been looking for..." Heather jested, smile never waning as she let Ruby get possession of her hand back.

"Oh, stop…" Ruby playfully waved off the comment. "It sounds like I'm a damsel in distress or something."

"I don't think you are…" Heather crossed her hand, then looked past her, to Minato sitting pretty in the red sofa. "But he probably thinks so. Says he wants to catch up with you guys."

They both looked at the absent-minded bluenette taking in the scenery while fiddling with the device hung around his neck.

Heather had done a lot of makeover in such a short time to her house to open up the space, but this living room alone gave off a different kind of openness. How wouldn't it be, when it had the same size as her whole house.

Aside from the coffee table which Minato assumed had been moved out of position judging by the drag marks on the tatami-style carpet, everything just screamed high-caste. Fitting, since the houses in the neighbourhood would stand out on their own if situated on the lower areas of the city.

Speaking of the others, Blake, Yang and Nora carried out plates from the kitchen visible from where the guest were seated. And then out came Ren, carrying the meals along with Jaune to the same direction, presumably to the large table seen in a room just past the glass barrier which housed a some sort of garden.

Ruby lead the guests into the dining room, where the meals had been laid. Minato got invited to join her whole ensemble in the huge table, while Heather settled for the other table along with Qrow.

Apparently, Qrow wasn't joking. Grilled fish, fish simmered in sauce, stir-fried chicken, beef stew, noodle soup, stir-fried vegetables, pickled cucumbers, and even deviled eggs. Oh, and rice, too.

The event went off quite electric, as Nora raced through the table to get everything in huge portions, even the rice. Her boisterousness caught Minato slightly off-guard, as he took a bowl of rice along with some protein and a bit of the stir-fried vegetables in separate plates. And then he came to a realization that he probably should've expected Blake to be crazy with fish, being a Faunus inheriting feline characteristics.

Watching Ruby and her friends talk to each other merrily as they enjoyed their meal made him develop a slight curl at the corner of his lips. The liveliness of the dining table took him back.

At first, Shinjiro started cooking dinner out of concern over everyone's diet. But then it became something of an event everybody attended. At times, Minato would lend a hand, being the only other guy who had garnered experience in the kitchen due to all the years he spent having to pick up after himself.

It stopped for quite some time after Shinjiro's death. Only after all the dust had been cleared in December did they sit together for dinner again, aside from that one time Akihiko treated everybody to ramen and beef bowl at the strip mall. Everybody would take turns to do the cooking, but Fuuka thrusted herself into the kitchen almost all the time. Sometimes Mitsuru would come down and help in the kitchen out of her own volition. As a result, she became even more appreciative of good home cooking, despite the fact that she might never get to do it on her own someday.

It could be said that Minato became the chef of the house by committee for the fact that he never overcooked Koromaru's meal, something Yukari had hoped would happen so nobody would slander her over it anymore, especially Junpei. Then again, someone would help him out in the kitchen every now and then. Sometimes Ken, sometimes Junpei, even Akihiko, the girls, and Aigis. All with varying levels of competence.

"Hey, kiddo." As everyone got up from the dining table, Qrow called to Minato, requiring his attention.

Minato didn't say a word and just walked up to Qrow sitting in a chair.

"We need to talk. It's important."

Minato glanced at Heather, still talking merrily with the Huntsmen students. He nodded, and followed Qrow to a room which door was out of view from the dining room.

It looked to be a typical room, brightly lit with two single beds and a desk. Oscar had sat on the edge of one of them.

"We meet again, Minato Arisato…"

Minato walked up to a chair, and set to make himself comfortable.

"I'm sure my absence at the table left you with some questions..."

Qrow who had momentarily exited the room came back in with a cup of hot drink in each hand.

"You're fine with coffee?"

Minato nodded, receiving the drink with both hands. He wasn't an addict, but coffee had its own benefits, such as keeping him up late at night.

"On top of preventing the demolition of the school, you helped us thwart an attempt at our lives against very formidable foes, despite our apparent advantage in numbers…" The kid opened, setting down his drink. "For that, I must thank you."

Minato appreciated it with yet another nod. But in no way he got dragged into a specific room just so that a kid could extend his gratitude.

"So, what's this about?"

Oscar looked at Minato in the eye. The kid particularly noting the dull grey irises of the bluenette.

"I'd like to clarify something." The kid got up from the desk, grabbed another chair, and sat across his conversation partner, letting his cane lean against the edge of the desk. "Would you mind showing me your Student License?"

Minato's spine went cold just for a passing moment, as he pulled out his Scroll and then displayed the document in full. He laid it on the table, right in front of Oscar, so that he could take a look.

Every second of the full minute Oscar spent to look at it felt like a minute of their own. Qrow only took a glance at it while remaining in his current posture.

"We've yet to get acquainted, but I already know one thing about you…" The kid spent a minute looking at it, and then returned to address him. "That there's no student named Minato Arisato in Beacon Academy, both in the past and present."

The kid inspected the license before coming back to him.

"But I have to say, this is quite the immaculate forgery. It would get through every inspection if not for missing one small, yet key feature."

From a glance, Minato would pretty much think the same way, until that one time he got a good look at Heather's and realized the lack of a bespoke crest at the top left corner of the photograph used for his fabricated document. In his defence, he had been today years old when he learned about it. Rather than pinning it on her, he would just let it fall as a lapse on his part.

Oscar expected the boy with blue hair to ask some rather obvious questions, but nothing came out. Furthermore, he was rather hard to read. While his gaze stayed on him, his one visible eye didn't seem to convey anything. The blue hair covering pretty much half of his face didn't help with things.

They continued the proceedings after Oscar took a sip of his drink, which exuded a rather strong cocoa scent.

"Team RWBY told me about a strange foray in which they were trapped inside a pocket dimension and had to fight their way out." In the hopes of getting Minato to show or tell just about anything, Oscar brought the conversation he had with the ensemble earlier in the morning. "They mentioned meeting people with similar powers as yours, among many other personalities which were…just as interesting."

By knowing that they had talked about it with someone else - whether or not this was the right thing to do mattered little - Minato could just skip the whole "remember when you went to X and met Y" thing.

"Yet they said you weren't present, nor your name was ever mentioned."

And having heard the story from Elizabeth herself, that much became obvious to Minato.

"I wasn't there at the time." Minato listened to many stories whenever Elizabeth came to visit him in his celestial grave. One of which that piqued his interest would be the new waves of Persona-users that kept coming in, along with Wild Cards who all received assistance from the Velvet Room. Well, one hardly did but assistance nonetheless. "Busy with some stuff." Knowing Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Aigis' agenda before stumbling into said pocket dimension, he would probably have joined them. Shame his circumstances left him with no choice.

Again, the two looked eye-to-eye, and Oscar still couldn't pick anything out of the bluenette's completely flat gaze.

"I see."

Forced to accept Minato's short answers, Oscar just blew a sigh.

"Now why exactly would a man who isn't a native of Remnant seek Ms. Rose?" Oscar then moved on to the next question, not sparing any and whatever he picked up regarding Minato's origin.

"One of them came to me." Minato referred to the people with similar powers as his Team RWBY had met. Although, Elizabeth didn't really count herself as being part of Mitsuru's group as she just happened to run into them. "Didn't give me much of the detail, but enough to help me make my mind."

"What detail?" Oscar grew slightly straightened his posture, with Qrow sharpening his gaze to the same degree.

Minato let Qrow's image burn into the corner of his vision as he took a quick glance at the cane, then back at the kid.

"About what happened to Beacon Academy, the potential of similar institutions getting attacked…" Minato looked to the door before he got back to them. "…and Ruby's ongoing journey with the warning in mind."

"And why Ms. Rose?" Something about Minato mentioning Ruby grew a bead of curiosity, as well as cautiousness, inside Oscar's mind.

"Her name's easy to remember." Minato basically copy-pasted Elizabeth's reason as to why. Although, she did mention of a girl who at the time hid her feline characteristics amongst her group, which turned out to be Blake. As he learned a little more about the group, he began to think she had other reasons.

"Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?" Oscar gave a smile at Minato's reasoning. Simple, yet honest, he thought. Although, he wouldn't blame them for thinking it might be stupid.

The mood matched the general brightness of the room for quite a bit after the small exchange of pleasantries. With that, it felt like each party had come to an agreement to take a brief recess from the seriousness.

Minato just leaned back on his chair while occasionally sipping his coffee. Oscar refilled his glass with more cocoa-scented drink. Qrow stepped out of the room for a passing moment, and brought into the room his own cup of coffee.

"How do we know you're not here to kill them, to kill us?"

Instead of Oscar, Qrow asked the question, picking up right where it had been left off. The mood grew dark once again, like the lighting in the room going seemingly dim, apart from one spotlight trained at Minato.

He straightened his back, legs crossed by the ankles, and looked at Oscar in the eye.

"I know that the mission is clear." He recalled the potential ruin that might befall Remnant in Elizabeth's words. This was undoubtedly the thing that sealed the deal, as it bore a similarity with SEES' mission back then, to eradicate the Dark Hour. "And she told me Ruby could have a crucial role in all this." He tried his best to not bring up what happened at Haven, in fear that it might come off the wrong way.

"She, the same person who told you about what's happened around here?" Qrow looked at Minato. "What is she, a psychic?"

"Just a lethal elevator attendant..." Basically, the quickest description Minato could think of when it came to Elizabeth. He only found out about the lethal part when she challenged him to a duel, in which she demonstrated prowess in close quarters combat to back up her expansive knowledge of Personas. Coupled that with her nature as a governor of power, she made for perhaps the most formidable opponent he had faced.

Not to discredit Ryoji and his Nyx Avatar form or anything, but Elizabeth truly felt otherworldly in that regard. Perhaps due to the fact that she had specifically requested for a one-on-one duel whereas the whole ensemble had a go at him even though he had transformed into a massive deathbringer.

"Although we only have vague ideas about your background, on top of your admittedly dubious answers, there's no denying that you appear to have a brilliant mind, on top of being very formidable in combat."

Oscar got up from his chair and walked to Minato.

"I'd like to see your abilities utilized to accomplish this 'mission'."

The two interrogators shared an approving nod despite their still apprehensive expression.

"If it wasn't for Team RWBY's testimony, we wouldn't have even considered summoning you."

The line made Minato wonder what would've happened otherwise. Apprehension, perhaps? A possession of that document broke the law, after all.

"I'd like to ask, out of curiosity…" Oscar's words pulled Minato out of his little stupor. "Do you know who I am?"

Minato looked at the kid from top to bottom. Then at his posture, and how he used the cane to stand up straight like he had been using it for eternity, and like he had been crippled since the beginning of time, despite clearly not possessing any disabilities.

"Oscar Pine…" Minato uttered the kid's name, then looked at the cane and its ornate handle. "With the soul of Beacon Academy's headmaster, Ozpin, residing within." After seeing the man himself in the footage of the most recent Vytal Festival tournament's opening ceremony, Minato felt reasonably confident that the two had been entangled with one another.

This surprised Qrow who immediately stood straight, while Ozpin just about maintained his composure.

"So you already knew…" Ozpin sipped his drink again.

"You made no effort to hide it." On top of his mannerisms, Ozpin's way of referring to Ruby gave it away. Also, his Personas did give him pointers in his head, such as the fact that the kid had the soul of a grown man, the kid had a soul of someone who had repeatedly die, and such.

All Ozpin could do was smile. In his defence, their first meeting happened by chance, in the heat of battle as well, in which he had been taking over the kid's body.

"And that doesn't tick you off, even for a bit?" Anybody who had stumbled upon the knowledge had been left bewildered and overwhelmed at first, but not this guy, and that made Qrow slightly tense up, on top of dropping a bead of sweat, despite his relaxed figure leaning against the wall.

"I'm not too unfamiliar with the concept." Although, the Pharos only ever controlled Minato - barely, he only told him what to do - when he first touched the Evoker. He would've pointed the barrel at that giant Shadow and pulled the trigger in vain had it not for his direction. The kid trapped inside him did the rest.

"So I've noticed." Ozpin sipped on his drink, nodding calmly.

He appeared to be quite content with this new guy already knowing his identity, all things considered.

"Your ability is interesting..." Ozpin recalled based on what he saw, along with feedback from someone outside the room. "Summons which possess prowess both in combat and support, and the just as proficient boy capable of commanding them, providing limitless possibilities at the discretion of its holder…"

The green eyes of the boy peered into the grey eyes of the bluenette.

"A Wild Card…"

Ozpin then labeled it in a term pretty much familiar to Minato, because it had been bestowed on him. In an instant, Ozpin stretched out his right hand to Minato's direction.

"If I were to join you, you must tell me everything to fill in the blanks." Elizabeth gave him a stern pointer before he set off, that only a minuscule percentage of the whole population of Remnant actually knew what's going on, and that an outbreak of information could cause the society succumb to one of the its biggest enemy, fear.

He considered including Heather in the conversation just for a split second. But considering the potential ramifications, he repented. Perhaps it might change in the coming days.

It reminded him of Mitsuru's intention to keep everything on a need-to-know basis before getting called out for it. At the time, just took it in stride despite his growing curiosity. Still, he understood the reason both sides had acted that way.

"'Fill in the blanks'?" Qrow's brows furrowed at Minato's request. "I thought the 'lethal elevator attendant' told you everything?"

Meanwhile, Ozpin just stood there and contemplated, while watching his right-hand man challenge the bluenette's wording.

"She's a little cryptic..." Minato shrugged. The Velvet Room residents had always been like that. "But like I said, she told me enough to help me decide." Even so, withholding crucial information would be a serious violation for attendants.

Ozpin lifted his head and gave Qrow a nod of approval.

"Understood."

The two grasped each other's hand and shook firmly.

Minato was shortly let out of the room, with the interrogators feeling satisfied. Qrow followed in tow, as they walked into the living room. Everybody had taken their seats either in a sofa or in chairs dragged from the dining room.

Although, they left one small red sofa for Qrow to sit in. On the other Hand, Heather had spared an empty space in one of the larger sofas for Minato to sit.

She undoubtedly wondered why they had to borrow the guy for what felt like forever. But she did have the Beacon Academy students to talk to in order to pass the time.

"Well, now that everybody's here…" Qrow settled into the sofa quite nicely. "I have bad news." Then got to the point.

Everyone not present in the little interrogation looked at the Huntsman in anticipation. Their gaze tracked his, who threw a sharp glare at Minato.

"Apparently he's been using a fake license."

A varying state of shock followed. Heather just managed to stifle a gasp, but left her eyes widening, throwing just as sharp glare at the subject in question.

"Did you know this, Heather?"

With Qrow's question, Heather straightened her back, and pressed her hands against her knees. She then drew a deep breath, and let it out with a long sigh.

"As a Huntress for almost fifteen years, I've been blessed with the ability to judge people through combat." After opening up with the statement, she pressed a hand on Minato's shoulder, as if grasping it. "And the guy sitting beside me is as any good a Huntsman as you'd find 'round here."

While Qrow just looked at her, waiting for a continuation, the rest of the ensemble just stared at her. Nobody seemed to want to comment, so she continued.

"He follows instructions, pays attention to the detail, adapts to the situation, and gets the job done." Then proceeded to name the things she managed to pick out over the course of the counteractive operation.

She came to a pause, and they all, sans Minato, watched her ball the other hand into a fist and pressed it against her chest.

"But most of all, he's got the heart."

Again, nobody offered any reply. A cue for her to continue.

"Sure, he doesn't talk much. He keeps his hands inside his pockets. He's got the eyes of a dead fish. And he doesn't mind having hair cover half of his face when he doesn't have anything to hide…"

Over the course of the past few days, those features about him stood out in front of her eyes. In turn, Minato somewhat felt called out by her bluntness.

"But those things don't define who he is, what he's about."

Again, it appeared cat bit everyone else's tongue in light of her statement. That could also be said for the boy who she just stripped down right in his face.

"It's clear to me that he's faced adversity before…" She gave everyone, and especially Minato, a focused, reassuring look. "…and prevailed, since he's here with us."

Nobody said anything, as if letting her continue to convince them.

"If you ask me, the reason he didn't go as far as forging a Huntsman license is because he knew it'd be a hard pass 'cause he looks none older than you guys." She instantly knew it the moment she could clearly see his face during his first visit to her house. "Otherwise, he'd been busted long ago."

Everyone remained tight-lipped and just stared at each other after hearing the answer.

"So you didn't know?" Qrow sighed, offering himself to ask the obvious question.

"Even if I did, what difference does it make?" Heather just sighed and then leaned into the sofa, hands stretched out along the back of the sofa. Her gaze still trained at Ruby's group as whole. "Lacking a piece of document isn't gonna change the Minato Arisato I know."

Minato knew that he had somewhat roped her into this. But at that moment, with his name uttered in full, he started to think of it as the Huntress' voluntary assessment of himself.

Meanwhile, said Huntress reached into a pocket and pulled out her Scroll. She tapped some buttons that allowed her to display her license on the see-through screen.

"And besides, there are people who went to the academies just so they could get this thing and flaunt it around, thinking they're tough and legit, instead of helping the community." Then she held the device by a corner with two fingers and waved it a few times for everyone to see.

End of argument. Minato, as the suspect, just sat there, commending Heather for her testimony in the back of his head. He couldn't have asked for anything better than that.

The other party seemed to be very accepting of the answer, nodding at Qrow in satisfaction. Although they probably still couldn't fathom why one would just forge a license.

"Well, I think we can just let this one go, because without your help, there's a pretty good chance we wouldn't be here." Qrow concluded the case, then looked at Minato. "But you have to ditch that fake license."

"No problem." Minato just shrugged and handed his Scroll to Qrow, who deleted the document.

With the Scroll back in Minato's hand shortly after, the tension in the room died down.

"Now that it's out of the way, I'd like to ask you about something, Mr. Branwen." Which prompted Heather to speak up. "Did you just invite us over to ask about his legitimacy?" Fair question, in the grand scheme of this whole visit.

"Of course not." Qrow sat down on his sofa. "I can tell you have questions."

"I do, and I want you to be honest with us." The reply was as swift as it came from Heather.

"How's Leo?" But first, Qrow wanted to know the headmaster's condition.

"He's asleep, but alright." Heather answered, leaning forward and to grab the cold cup of tea and gulped the rest of them and maintained the posture as she put it down.

Then her brows furrowed, and her glare sharpened. Everybody could feel the tension in her, and Qrow mentally braced himself.

"Have you been able to wrap your head around his standing in all this, Mr. Branwen?" Heather glared at Qrow. "Because I have."

In actuality, so did Minato. The question would whether Qrow had. The students seemed to have as well, as Minato noted her pretty much lumping in with her friends.

"There's zero Huntsman presence in town, let alone in Haven, allowing the White Fang to just waltz in and took a shot at demolishing the entire place."

She pressed her little finger, signaling the first issue.

"Then Blake said Lionheart had been attacking you guys. And Then Minato said Lionheart trained his weapon on him, which forced his hand."

Then her ring finger and her middle finger, in that order, marking the second and third issues.

"Mr. Branwen, you better tell me…" Heather paused, seeing Minato's eyes narrowing slightly. "Tell us…what is going on?" Then she rephrased the question.

The Huntsmen students all looked at Qrow with varying degrees of anxiety, and Qrow could do nothing but simply sigh.

"Alright, alright…" Qrow reached into his jacket and pulled out a flask from which he took a little sip. "Get ready, because you're not gonna like this."

Qrow started with stating their business for showing up at the academy. Apparently, they had met Lionheart weeks prior, asking for his help, who then said he would refer to the council to see whether or not they could get the green light.

That night, they had been summoned to Haven Academy by the headmaster under the assumption that they had been given the go and would get some help. Obviously, there had been some complications – such as the fact that no Huntsmen could be found in the area – considering how everything panned out in the end.

"How did you get in a fight over that kind of stuff?" That explanation led to one thing in Heather's mind. "I know it's unfortunate that everything fell through, but I don't see why you'd just attack him."

Qrow had no other choice but to just give it away. After getting an approving nod from the students, he let out a sigh. They thought the two guests deserved to know because they helped pull it all off. And in the case of Minato, he probably had saved their lives.

As it turned out, Mercury, Emerald, and the big guy named Hazel weren't the only ones they had to fight. The party originally had six members. The other three had gone off somewhere else by the time Minato and Blake entered the fray.

The first, Vernal, a bandit tribeswoman. She had the role of being the deputy of the head of the tribe. Also noted, a very capable fighter. Weiss Schnee got absolutely curb-stomped to the point she ran out of Aura and then got injured by someone else. Yang confirmed her status to be deceased after the event.

Second, Raven Branwen, the aforementioned head of the tribe.

"So she pops up in the city every now and then…" Heather slipped in a comment as soon as she heard Raven's name being mentioned. Blake had been quite surprised at the revelation as well.

Her Semblance, which allowed the creation of portals with people she had form bonds with, gave the whole group access to the hall without having to go through anyone else. This group, minus the Branwen Tribe members, were considered to be the other party responsible for taking down Beacon Academy, if Blake's implication had any meaning whatsoever.

Unlike Vernal, Raven survived. But pinpointing her location, getting to her, and taking her in were three very different things. The difficulty would spike between one thing and the other.

Heather didn't quite understand why a Huntsman like Qrow Branwen would need help, but after the name-drop of his sister, she repented from asking anymore questions regarding the mission's cancellation. On the other hand, Minato just sat there and watch her reaction to get a gauge on things. Then it became slightly clearer once Heather spared a minute to give a little explanation.

Last, but certainly not least, Cinder Fall. The drop of the name alone exuded an air of discomfort amongst the academy students, most notably on Jaune, Nora, and Ren's faces, as well as Ruby's.

She would be considered as the whole ensemble's leader, for the fact that even Adam Taurus answered to her during their partnership. Having snuck into the Vytal Festival held at Beacon Academy, she basically crumbled the place from the inside by introducing the security system with a little thing called a computer virus.

But a mere cyber crime wouldn't bring it all down. Instead, the biggest enemy of the society, the good-old negative emotions, did.

A singles match gone awry in which spectators witnessed a person – or a thing, depending on who asked – getting dismantled to literal pieces, kicked everything into gear, bringing lots of Grimm into the area. And that was after a notable incident occurred in the city which forced security responsibilities to change hands. Yet they still failed to curtail the disaster. The uphill battle that Elizabeth metaphorized to.

Not only it caused severe panic all over Beacon Academy and its neighboring city of Vale, but also all over Remnant, resulting in heavy losses both in infrastructure and manpower.

While Heather put her hands over her head, Minato watched the tension rise amongst the academy students. Make no mistake, he too couldn't believe it, but he hadn't been there to see it. No use mulling over it.

The tension among the students during the explanation could be cut through with a scissor, leading Minato to believe this Cinder had a profound effect on them.

Not to forget the woman was also considered a formidable fighter. Though, Yang – yet again – confirmed her status to be missing, not deceased.

With all the players seemingly in place, pregnant silence took over the room. Nobody had spoken a word, and Heather suddenly leaned far forward, but let her head hung, fingers digging deep into her hair. She gritted her teeth and released a light grunt against the ground.

Minutes later, Heather had collected herself.

"So what're you gonna do?" She could finally look up. "We have Lionheart recovering in the hospital, and Adam Taurus in lockup."

"It's obvious that Adam will face several charges, but we don't know what to do with Leo." Qrow sighed. While Heather had perfectly out things into perspective, even for him, he still had a tinge of doubt.

"Then do you mind if I take him in for treason?" Heather pleaded, looking at Qrow straight in the eye.

"Do you have the proof?" Qrow challenged, despite obviously knowing it might be the right thing to do in the back of his mind.

Heather grunted and gritted her teeth. She lifted balled her left hand into a fist and slammed it hard on the marble tabletop, but not enough to produce cracks on the expensive material.

"Who cares about proof!? It's very clear that he's behind all of this!" She cried off the top of her lungs. "He let the White Fang in! He sent Huntsmen to their deaths! And he almost brought mass panic to the city!" She pointed to the distance with the other hand with the next sentences.

Nobody had it in them to respond to her argument, not even Qrow, nor Minato. Although, all this felt somewhat familiar to the bluenette.

The chairman who had used him and his friends like a damn fiddle back then would also be apprehended if not for the guy falling to his death instead. Going into the promised day, it could be said that they had resigned to the fact that they could be walking away with blood on their hands, including Minato, with Takaya and Jin waiting for them.

"And to think he's the headmaster of a Huntsman Academy, as well as having in a seat in the council…!" Meanwhile, Heather stated yet more facts that everybody already knew anyway. "Do you really think a man who could've caused the community to flip on its head deserves to walk!?"

"Look, we've searched for anything that could bring him down, but the bastard's covered his tracks." Qrow shrugged, and then took another sip of his drink.

Minato slightly narrowed his eyes at that. Although, he'd rather not think of it as a mere excuse, having thought of every possibility that could play out.

"As much power we have as Huntsmen, we can't just play vigilante without anything to back it up." Qrow added to his answer also with a pretty much proven statement.

And Heather knew this, having been born and raised in a region where the work of killing Grimm became integrated to law enforcement and military's job description. She quietly sat back down, facepalming with both hands. Her fingers lightly rubbed her forehead as she just curled in the sofa.

"How about Haven Academy?" Minato offered to ask, with a hole being blown out of one of the buildings plus the other minor property damages, and the lack of staff. Word already came out to the public that the police had taken over security detail for the moment. Other than that, anything regarding its operation remained unclear.

"The council plans to suspend operations and send students either on missions or facilitate transfers to the other academies… Most likely to the one in Vacuo." Qrow answered calmly.

Minato nodded in understanding, while learning yet another new knowledge about how the academies work. He still had so many to learn, but figured he'd rather do it along the way or whenever he had free time.

After that answer, Heather took her hands off her face and pressed them against her knees. She did a little rub and finished her tea, before getting up from the sofa.

"Let's go, Minato. We're done here."

Although no longer known as a student under supervision, Minato just casually did so. The clock indicated the time to be quite late in the evening.

"When you've heard anything new from the council…"

Before walking towards the door, Heather turned to the group of Qrow and his students, awfully aware that he might have connections in the Mistral government.

"Or maybe you've decided to get up and be a consummate professional and go get a confession out of Lionheart, or a probable cause, or anything…"

And then she remembered the captain of the Mistral police telling her they would go see the headmaster once his condition improved.

"Give me a call!"

With that exclamation, she turned around and walked to the door. But, Minato chose to walk up to the group and address them.

"She has good relations with the police." Minato recalled how chummy the Huntress and the law enforcement seemed to be, despite the little heated moment she and the captain had, as mentioned by one of the officers. "If you don't tell her, they will, Mr. Branwen." Minato edged a little closer to Qrow for to deliver that one line.

With speaking to Qrow out of the way, Minato turned to Ruby and her friends, including the kid in the distance just watching over the whole thing unfolding.

"I know you have questions for me, but-"

"MINATO!" Heather had exited the premise, but kept the door open.

"Coming…" It appeared she really wanted to leave, and the guy she shouted for couldn't do anything about it.

"It's fine…we'll also still be in town." Ruby shrugged in resignation. "We can also do it over the call, you know…" She threw a friendly smile while everyone else took it all in.

"Sure." Minato nodded, taking Ruby's idea to consideration. He bowed to all of them and bid farewell. "Thanks for having us."

Heather's shoulders had been visibly stiff while her strides became faster. Minato kept up rather effortlessly, having inserted his hands into the pockets even.

Some time later, her steps gradually slowed, until they came to a stop at a cliff side which happened to be one of the city's many sighting spots.

"I'm…sorry for that." She pressed her hands against the wooden railing, eyes gazing into the Mistral nightscape.

The following morning after the attack, the news broke out, leaving a good portion of the citizens in a state of panic. Fortunately, nobody made any error in mentioning that things had been taken under control, and the perpetrators arrested.

Adam Taurus' photograph being shown to the public would have further soured the Faunus' reputation in the land. But thanks to Heather who made sure the media kept it honest with their articles, the people began to not just see the Faunus in a different light, but also praised the people of Menagerie for coming all the way to defend an establishment only a small amount of them had a relation to.

Otherwise, Grimm would've already soiled the magnificent scenery in front of them. Something nobody other than specific parties wanted happening.

Meanwhile, he sat on the railing, with a scenery unlike any other in the distance, and a huge drop right below them.

"They're not just fellow Huntsmen…"

Everything had become a much, much bigger mess than she realized. As her thoughts went to those left behind, her voice started trembling more and more with every passing word.

"They're my friends, too…"

Her grip tightened, as if trying to crush the railing. Her eyes began to swell, her vision blurring. Her teeth gritted, and the words jammed inside her throat.

"And…and they're all gone..."

Finally, she let her shoulders go limb and hung her head. Tears streamed down her cheeks, sobbing in between ragged breaths. She had all but fell on her knees, noticing that beside her, sharing the grief, stood a boy whose facial expression hardly gave away anything.

He almost wanted to lay a comforting hand at the grieving Huntress, but retracted it. Instead, he just closed his eyes, all the while the whole Sea of Souls let him know that it shared the same feeling of grief. With every draw of his breath, he pictured what families and relatives of these missing Huntsmen might be thinking about.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. Then, out came a handkerchief from his pocket, which he gave to Heather, who took it without even looking.

As she began wiping her tears, he figured it was time to speak his mind, about something that crossed his mind while he let her have a moment of her own. He took the time to trace his memory a few days back, to when she showed him around Haven Academy and then leave him out in the sun, going off around the learning institution on her own.

"Some of the missions I saw on the board are marked as 'in progress' and 'on hold' instead of 'terminated'."

His words seemed to have gained her attention, if the slow turn of the neck until she got a good look at him was to go by.

"What are you getting at?"

He let the question simmer for a few seconds before coming up with the answer.

"I don't think everybody's gone." The variety of status being shown on the board just led him to the natural conclusion. Unless a manual telling him what it all implied existed, it felt like the most educated guess he could come up with. "Some of them might still be alive." He further spelled it out in hopes of getting the point across.

Which it seemingly did, as it got the gears inside her head turning. Before she could lay any comeback, he spoke again.

"They also have loved ones wondering where they are, waiting at home. Even if it's been weeks."

Any chance of a comment had been shot down, and she just stood there, somewhat waiting for the bluenette to speak some more.

"I think searching for them, or whatever's left of them, is the least we can do."

Even he knew the chances were slim. But he could work with that.

"They deserve to get closure."

Before speaking in response, Heather completely wiped her tears away, which had washed most of her makeup.

"I love that you only mentioned their family, and not the council, even though they also wanna know..." Then she let out a chuckle, rewinding all the way to the beginning to get a full grasp of what he just said word per word.

Minato just rolled his eyes to that. Truth be told, he completely forgot about the council, or any sort of government.

"In any case, you're right…" She did her best to smile.

She put her hand out to his direction.

"We can't just leave them in the dark…"

She stretched out her hand. With the constraints of the Huntsman-and-student act they had been keeping up lifted, she figured she could start seeing him in a different way.

"Let's do it."

He firmly grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle shake. After that, they started walking in silence.

"That reminds me…" Only when they took a wrong turn that took them to the Market District instead of the elevator system, something sprung into her mind. "You're gonna need a weapon, besides your Evoker." She knew the silver gun didn't really count as a weapon, but she just classified it as one regardless.

In response, he pulled out the leather gloves and steel knuckles and put them on. He then flexed his fingers repeatedly as he held up his hands for her to see.

"I have these…"

Heather looked at the pieces of metal wrapped around his fingers and struggled to contain her laughter. Though in the end, she let out a rather prolonged giggle with one hand laid on her stomach.

"How about the sword?" The sight of his sword snapping right with the piece flying away gave her a massive scare, before he seemingly pulled another trick out of the bag.

"I've seen a lot of weapon merchants around, but no blacksmiths." Minato shook his head, recalling his foray around the city the day after the attack. It just felt absurd, with the many booth selling weapons around.

If the technology that could make a staff collapse into nunchucks that fire projectiles existed, surely, they had something sophisticated enough to restore a broken sword to its heyday, he thought. Although, one could just do it the old-fashioned way, if the worlds' standards were to go by.

Just break down whatever remained of the snapped blade into smaller pieces, to then forge-weld them back together, to then draw it out again with a hammer, to then grind out the profile and distal taper. After that, it would still need to be heat-treated, tempered, and ground out to a finish all the while sharpening its tip and edges. Only then would the fittings be put back on; the crossguard, handle, and pommel, in that order.

"Well, if you wanted something like that, all you gotta do is ask Aunty Heather!" She pointed a thumb to herself while puffing her chest.

He offered nothing but a couple of blinks in response, which made her flush for a few seconds as she pressed the pause button.

"SorrythatwasembarrassingI'llneverdothatagain." She cleared her throat, trying her best to not shrink in front of this nonchalant boy who she already had to slightly tilt her head upwards to look in the eye.

They both shared a chuckle as the Market District disappeared from their rear view, replaced by the elevator they about to take.

"About that thing with Qrow asking about your License…"

She had been rather reluctant to talk about it, in fear of someone might catch in on them. As they exited the elevator and walked onto the path leading to her house, she felt comfortable enough to bring it up.

"I know it was your idea and all I had to do was just play along, but I'm so glad it worked!" She stretched her arms, breathing a huge sigh of relief.

He had been so engrossed in his thought of the Huntress, catching up with Ruby, and whatever next, that he forgot to be relieved that they were off the hook regarding that little act.

"But…it's really what I think of you. Even though it's only been a week since we met in that abandoned village."

As suspected, it really was an honest assessment.

"If I'm the headmaster, I'd make you a Huntsman already." She added. You've already done enough in just mere days that a lot of students can't accomplish after four years in the academy." A bit of hyperbole, perhaps, but not everybody could say they had taken down Adam Taurus, defeated an unknown man, and practically saved a Huntsman Academy along with its CCT Tower from an act of terrorism.

"With all due respect, I don't know the standards expected of a typical Huntsman…" Obviously, he wouldn't go ahead and call himself one despite the compliment of someone already deep in the profession. Because if one had to go through education which sounded presumably quite similar to his world's service academies, he would consider himself being far from it. "But thanks." Regardless, it was an appreciation intended towards him.

"Aside from being able to kill Grimm, it varies from person to person…" She briefly thought about it before coming up with the only concrete answer she knew of. "Some likes humility, some likes a bit of swagger, some likes ruthlessness, some likes mercifulness…"

The way Minato had touched on specific subjects gave Heather a bit of insight to what's behind those bangs and his impassiveness, perhaps more. She knew not to force someone to just talk about their past, but admittedly she had a budding interest in wanting to know the whole deal with him. She imagined Ruby and her whole crew shared the same sentiment.

"I'll go to Haven and gather all the info tomorrow. It should take a few hours at minimum, a day or two at most."

They had arrived at her house as she laid out her supposed plan.

"Use the time to go see Ruby's group and catch up with them." Heather extended her fist. "I'll give you a heads-up when I'm ready."

He nodded in affirmation, feeling it pretty much necessary to do it as soon as possible.

"And I'm sorry for abruptly ending that visit…" She cast her gaze down. "I wasn't thinking about your intention…"

He looked away, raised his eyebrows, and just shrugged at her apology. Not to make light of it, but it just couldn't be helped as the mood already turned sour in there.

"The only way to go is forward, to honour their memories." He already experienced enough to understand how tough one had to be in the line of work, both physically and mentally. But that shouldn't make it absent of empathy.

"I know..." She nodded. "It might not completely hit me yet despite my reactions…" And gave him a very sincere smile as she turned the handle of the front door.

This time, nobody greeted her home. Perhaps she told her family it had nothing to do with getting into combat that they could afford to relax.

"If Mr. Branwen wants to talk again, let me know." She stepped in but turned around, leaning against the door frame. "Till then, see you around."

Minato waved goodbye and began walking back into his lodging, noting the watch indicating it's almost midnight.

**Author's Note**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold, chapter nine of this work, that everyone's been looking forward to. It's not the longest in word count but it's up there.
> 
> I'm sorry that it took a while to get here because I forgot I actually have an account here so I have to recover it first. It's all good now.
> 
> I had to like delete half of this stuff and start over, and it wasn't easy along the way. But I'm glad it turned out well in the end, I think.
> 
> I basically had to dig through old discussions for the sake of research just to see what can and can't be done for this. Although, it's mostly on Reddit. Thanks fellas, real helpful. Will keep coming back for more.
> 
> You know, I realized I might've thrown a monkey wrench in the whole thing by having Lionheart survive, Adam arrested in Haven, and a mentioned character turned OOC freeform in Heather Shields. Well, all the more challenge for me huh?
> 
> As you can see, we're still in Mistral, unlike the show which just skipped forward by two weeks showing the gang departing for Argus. Man, I wish they'd expand on the city instead of just peace out like that. I know the characters might've done things but showing it for like half an episode wouldn't hurt. It left us with little knowledge about the area. But we have a bit of Cinder scattered all over V6 so I guess there's that?
> 
> And two weeks is plenty of time to work with. So hopefully I'll be able to do something with it.
> 
> And then, Minato's weapon. I've actually seen examples that I think should work and I'll make one based on those. It should accommodate his entire P3FES arsenal in the end, plus his newly discovered "capabilities". I don't have much experience in drawing but I can use a bit of CAD so hopefully I should be able to make it, fingers crossed. If that fails, I'll just draw it by hand.
> 
> If you have a suitable name for Minato's weapon, please do drop it. I'd like to hear your ideas.
> 
> Last but not least, do please correct me on the Ozpin/Oscar thing if I'm doing it wrong. It's the first time I'm writing someone who has two different consciousness in the same body.


End file.
